Kumagawa The Number Six
by Icefriend
Summary: Just like it says on the tin. The story takes place just after Volume 22 but instead of GREMLIN rising up to attack Academy City and the world, a different threat arises. Kumagawa Misogi Academy City's #6 level 5. This will not include any Medaka Box characters other than him, it is an alternate continuity where he has always been a Academy City esper. Touma/Yuriko
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:** This project is a side project of mine that I'll be updating every so often. My main project A Perfect World will be getting most of my attention, but this should be updated with some regularity. If it gets popular I'll update it more often but for now my focus is on A Perfect World.

This is just the prologue chapter, future chapters will be longer.

In case anybody here doesn't know Yuriko is a rather popular genderbend of Accelerator made up by the manga author as a joke. I really like the idea of Accelerator as a girl so I decided to use her in this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own To Aru Majutsu No Index or Medaka Box

* * *

Kuroyuro Umidori ran through the remains of the facility that was all that remained of The Freshmen. Her master plan to bring back the darkness to Academy City had failed completely. No, to be more accurate she hadn't even been able to start it.

Their strongholds had been raided, their powered suits had been destroyed, and all of their people had been defeated. All in a single day. The destruction was so complete that it would be almost impossible for the The Freshmen to ever rebuild. Someone had destroyed them like a child pulling the wings off of a fly.

She knew that it wasn't Accelerator fulfilling his threat to bare his fangs against the darkness of Academy City. She had him under close surveillance to make sure that he didn't realize what they were doing before she wanted him to. So who the hell had reason to crush them and enough power to do so?

All she knew was that it was a single person not a group. They had gotten a message from one of the strongholds as it was being attacked stating that it was being done by a single person, before the messenger had suddenly fallen silent. Given that the attacks were happening one at a time, it must be the same person going around to strongholds one at a time.

It had to be a level five. She already knew it wasn't Accelerator. The number two, Kakine Teitoku, was currently nothing but a brain in a jar. The number three Misaka Mikoto... yes it must be her, Kuroyuro realized. She was a level five with the power over electricity which was very suited for destroying the freshmen who relied heavily on powered suits and other technology. Also she has been known to destroy facilities of the Darkness before, such as in the Sisters experiment.

"Misaka Mikoto, I will kill you for this." Kuroyuro swore to herself.

[Wrong.]

Kuroyuro froze. It had been a male voice. She glanced around looking for the speaker and found him not hiding but standing openly behind her. He had black hair, and was wearing an entirely black school uniform. In his right hand he was holding a giant screw which would have looked comical if anybody else was holding it. She could sense an aura from him, a feeling of absolute _wrongness_.

"Who... Who are you?" She managed to spit out. She couldn't tell why she was so nervous. Her plan was to go against Accelerator the strongest level five in the entire world, and she was acting against the direct orders of the Academy City board of directors. If she could do all that why was she so scared of this person? No, she didn't know why but somehow she got the feeling that the person standing before her was far more terrible than any of them.

[Kumagawa Misogi.] He answered. [The number six level five.]

"A level five?" She asked in shock. Why was he talking like that? She didn't know what it was but something about the way he talked seemed... off. No she didn't have time to worry about that right now. Going up against any level five without tons of preparation was a stupid mistake. Still though she didn't have any other options right now. He was standing right in front of her in the open so now was probably her only chance!

Without hesitation she stuck out her palms and fired two Bomber Lances at him. At the same time she broke the plastic dolphin she had been carrying around and made the large number of robotic claws attach to her. She shouldn't have bothered. The two Bomber Lances hit the number six directly, killing him. He was cut completely in half.

Kuroyuro just stood there for a second too stunned to think. Then she laughed. "What was that! To think a level five could be that weak!" She yelled. What the hell had she been so scared about earlier? She turned around and began to leave, already plotting how to get the Freshmen back on their feet. The defeat of a level five could bring them enough status to overcome this catastrophe.

[Ow.] Kumagawa said.

"What?" Kuroyuro said as she froze. The fear from earlier suddenly reappeared. She glanced behind her, trying to tell herself that she had just been hearing things. She wasn't. The man she had killed Kumagawa Misogi, the man she had cut in half, was now completely whole and standing with a smile on his face. "An illusion?" She spat out.

[No.] He said simply. [My power is far beyond something like that.]

"What... what is your power?" She forced out.

[All Fiction.] He said. [The power to turn anything into nothing.]

"Then... just now you..."

[Yes I turned my death into nothing.]

"What the hell!" She screamed. "How the hell am I supposed to fight something like that!?" The power was so ridiculously strong that she could hardly believe it.

[Who knows?] He asked with a devilish smile.

"Why are you doing this?"

[Ah, I have plans for Accelerator, so I can't let you get in the way.]

"Just die!" She screamed. She prepared Bomber Lances in every single one of her palms, artificial and real. "All I have to do is destroy every cell of your body and nothing will be left to use your power!" She yelled as she fired all of them at once at every part of his body.

[Why would you tell me that?] He asked. He was no longer in front of her but beside her. [Sheesh you might have beaten me there if you hadn't announced your plan.]

"How-" She said before suddenly feeling a terrible pain in her stomach. She looked down to see the screw he had been carrying sticking right through her. The pain was nearly unbearable.

[Don't worry] He said with a smile. [I used my power so you won't die.]

Kuryuro struggled for breath helplessly. The world went black


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** So it's been a while. Future updates should be faster than this. If in the future you feel like it's been too long please feel free to send me a PM, maybe I'm just being lazy :P

I should point out that unlike my other ongoing fic A Perfect World this one is only very loosely planned out. A Perfect World I had to plan out meticulously but with this one I'm being much more relaxed about it. I'm not even sure how many chapters is will be.

And that final episode of Medaka Box Abnormal was just so awesome. Kumagawa is the greatest character ever.

* * *

Accelerator, contrary to appearances, was a girl.

She knew that she looked like a boy. It wasn't out of a desire to hide her gender that she dressed and acted like one, it was simply laziness. Boy clothing was much easier to wear than girl clothing and she would never be caught dead wearing makeup. She even talked like a boy out of a desire to sound more frightening and scare off people so she wouldn't have to hurt them. Add to all that her completely androgynous appearance due to her nearly non-existent breasts, boy-cut hair, and albinism and she could understand why people would think she was a boy unless she told them otherwise.

That however didn't mean she wasn't pissed at Misaka WORST for reacting to the revelation by falling to the floor laughing.

"Pfff-hahahahaha!" WORST yelled from the floor. "You're telling Misaka that this person is a girl!? This flat-chested thing is supposed to be feminine!?"

"Shut up or I will break your other arm." Accelerator responded. She put her hand on her collar with a glare. A terrifying aura practically rose around her as she stared at WORST, an aura that had caused some of the most powerful people in the world to run away screaming.

WORST ignored it and kept laughing. Accelerator flipped the switch on her collar and jumped at WORST with a curse.

"Stop yells Misaka as Misaka as Misaka tries to break up the fight!" Last Order yelled at the two of them. At the sound of her voice Accelerator forced herself to stop in the middle of her step and turned away from WORST with a huff. "That's better says Misaka as Misaka gloats about her peacekeeping skills."

"Is that why you go by Accelerator?" WORST said, no longer laughing but still staring at her with mirth in her eyes. "Don't want people to know your secret? Don't worry Misaka won't tell anybody if you agree to be her slave." She stood up as she spoke.

"Shut the hell up." Accelerator replied.

"Why _don't_ you ever use your name asks Misaka as Misaka tries to make it seem like this isn't a question she's been wondering about forever."

"I just don't okay!?" Accelerator practically roared. Then she quieted at the look in Last Order's eyes. Not fear from being yelled at but sadness that Accelerator wouldn't share such a simple thing as her name. It wasn't that simple of course. It wasn't just a name, it represented a whole other part of her life. An part of her life that she had been doing her best to pretend had never happened because that was easier than facing the innocent child she had been. But still she was trying to turn away from the darkness now wasn't she? So shouldn't she stop hiding from who she had been?

"Please begs Misaka as Misaka asks you to open up to her."

"...Alright... My name is..." She paused and took a deep breath, steeling herself. "Suzushina Yuriko." Accelerator said the name slowly and carefully. It didn't feel like it was her name. She had avoided using or even thinking about it for so long that she doubted she would even look up if someone used it to address her from across the room.

"Thank you says Misaka as Misaka is thankful." Last Order said. Her eyes were practically sparkling with joy.

"...Idiot." Was all Yuriko said.

"Well now that we've reached that epiphany it's time for dinner." Yomikawa said in a dead-pan voice.

"Dinner yells Misaka as Misaka abandons this heartwarming moment in exchange for food!" Last Order yelled as she charged her way over to the table.

Yuriko walked over to the table feeling like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She had finally let out a secret that she had been holding for the majority of her life.

"So does this mean that Misaka's sisters are going to have more competition for that spiky haired hero?" WORST asked with a completely straight face as she sat down. The dinner today was a simple meal of rice and curry, the kind of thing Yomikawa made constantly because it allowed her to use the precious rice-cookers.

"...What?" Yuriko asked.

"Well if you're a girl isn't this obviously the case where the redeemed villainess falls in love with the hero? Misaka doesn't know much but she understands such things are standard."

"Was the person who imputed your knowledge with the testament an idiot or something? That kind of thing doesn't happen in the real world you idiot."

"You say that but even Misaka can tell your face changes when your thinking about him."

"Shut. Up." Yuriko said as she started shoveling food into her mouth.

"Misaka is only finding out in order to warn her sisters. If you are in love with him then with your personality you're likely to be the yandere type. Misaka could easily imagine you killing anybody who gets in the way of your perverted love, then stalking the hero and one day kidnapping him and making him fall in love with you back via Stockholm Syndrome." WORST responded.

"Die!" Yuriko yelled at her.

"Not at the dinner table!" Yomikawa yelled with a barely concealed grin. She and Yoshikawa had stopped eating to watch the conversation like they were watching a sitcom. "Now, Yuriko you are at that age now, it's natural for you to be having these feelings. Just remember to use protection."

'I am not in love with him!" Yuriko screamed. Unlike her previous roar this one sounded far more feminine and far more scared.

"Don't worry Misaka will support your love says Misaka as Misaka promises to hold off the sisters to give you time to go on the offensive."

"Shut up all of you! I am not in love with anybody! Just because I had one dream doesn't mean-!"

The whole room froze. Yuriko stopped screaming, stopped doing anything. For once in her life her body wasn't pale white, instead her entire body was red from the biggest blush she had ever had in her entire life. Yomikawa and Yoshikawa looked like they had just seen a preschooler make a confession, and were trying not to ruin the moment by laughing at the kid. Last Order was smiling and looking smugly satisfied.

WORST looked like Christmas had just come early. "You.. you... dream about him?" She said, with every word her smile and the joy in her voice rose higher. "Misaka didn't imagine you were that kind of person."

Yuriko hit the switch on her collar. She had to get out. The window.

She jumped out the open window and fled into the night wishing that she could find some way to disappear. For the first time in her life the #1 level five of Academy City had tasted bone-deep embarrassment. And she really didn't like it.

* X *

Last Order watched Yuriko jump out the open window but was too distracted to really register it. She didn't even hear Yomikawa and Yoshikawa break down laughing now that Yuriko wasn't in ear shot. An explosion of communication had started on the Misaka network the second Yuriko had admitted she had dreamt about Touma. WORST, the collection of the Misaka Network's negativity, must have really regretted dragging that out of her judging by the expression on her face.

"Emergency declares Misaka #10932!"

"All personnel immediately drop what they are doing and focus on this, yells Misaka #11102 impersonating a drill Sargent!"

"Immediate action must be taken urges Misaka #19969!"

"Misaka proposes that the offender be cut off from the Misaka Network to prevent them from being able to attack suggests Misaka #15541 cruelly."

"No, if that were to happen then the saviour would definitely turn against us states Misaka #10032."

"Quit acting like you know him much more than we do Misaka #15335 says jealously."

"If we cripple a young girl then the saviour will definitely think of us as evil regardless of their past relationship warns Misaka #10032."

"Misaka #10032 is right Misaka #14641 says in an effort to seem like she is also intimate with the saviour."

"More importantly the saviour is still missing warns Misaka #10777 as she remembers seeing him refuse rescue and plummet into the Arctic ocean."

"Perhaps Yuriko can be persuaded to help find him questions Misaka #18432?"

"Then we could stab her in the back Misaka #15541 says while playing the devils advocate."

"More importantly are we even sure he is alive asks Misaka #13792 pessimistically?"

"The saviour wouldn't die that easily states Misaka #12763 confidently."

"Agreed adds Misaka #10307."

"What is the odds that the saviour picks Yuriko over us asks Misaka #11321?"

"Exceedingly low states Misaka #16572."

"How did you calculate that asks Misaka #19642?"

"We Misaka's have the advantage of numbers says Misaka #16572 as she suggests teaming up."

"Misaka intends to keep the saviour to herself rebukes Misaka #19747."

"Forming a harem will maximize Misaka's chances of winning states Misaka #16572. Misaka is confident that the saviour will be able to spread his love onto all of us says Misaka #16572 as she parrots the strategy she gained from To Love-Ru Darkness."

"Live in the real world you damn otaku Misaka #14137 cruelly replies."

"Say what you will, Misaka will bring you around eventually Misaka #16572 states. Misaka proposes that those of use who want to to make our own 'The Saviour's Harem Group' and leave the other Misaka's in the dust."

"Nobody is going to join that Misaka #17233 says to put down your childish fantasy."

"Enough of this, what should our course of action be asks Misaka #10405 impatiently?"

"I will take care of this Misaka #10032 states with more confidence then she feels."

"Agreed." Was the response of almost the entire Misaka network, placing their trust in Misaka #10032.

Last Order came back to herself as the conversation died down and started to eat her dinner. WORST had also seemed to have calmed down as the excessive negativity was replaced by cautiousness. If Yomikawa and Yoshikawa had noticed their odd silence they didn't feel the need to say anything about it.

Last Order smiled to herself as she ate. Now she just had to figure out what a 'harem' was and advise Yuriko to start one in order to win the saviour's heart for good. She was certain that if she tried her best she could help Yuriko win her love.

None of the occupants in the room registered the man standing in the room with them. A man with black hair and two giant screws in his hands. For some reason even when they looked right at him they saw nothing, just an empty space. The man smiled.

* X *

Yuriko ran through the city cursing herself. _Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. What the hell was I thinking? And why did I dream about that bastard anyways I don't even know his damn name._ Her blush returned at the thought of the dream she had had right after their return to Academy City.

The dream had started by replaying the first time they had met when he had stopped her from murdering a Misaka clone and had brought an end to the experiment. Only there were minor differences. For one the original Misaka hadn't shown up and the Misaka clone had vanished in the illogic of a dream. For another instead of the black and white shirt she had worn so often back then she had been wearing very feminine clothing, which had included a skirt. And he had mentioned several times that he knew she was a girl.

Then it had flash forwarded to Russia and things had started to get even weirder.

_Yuriko swung her black wings at him still wearing her girly clothing despite being in the middle of freezing cold Russia. As he had in a reality he had somehow managed to avoid getting killed_ _by her black wings, shattering them with his right hand._

_That's where the relation to what actually happened had ended._

_"You don't have to do this anymore Accelerator!" He yelled at her._

_"Stay back! I have to live in this world of darkness! Nothing can take me out of it!"_

_"I can." He said. Suddenly he was standing beside her and was holding onto her arm, her wings and the background of Russia had both vanished. "Just be with me Yuriko. Walk away from your world and step into my world of light. We'll be a family. You, me, and Last Order."_

_"A...family?"_

_"That's right. Will you marry me Yuriko?" He asked and pulled her into a hug. As he did so his shirt disappeared and she was pressed up against his large muscles. "We'll be together forever."_

_"I don't understand. I must be dreaming this." Yuriko argued._

_"It's not a dream Yuriko." He told her. Then he sealed her lips with a kiss. "I want to be with you." With that kiss her realization that she was in a dream faded and their clothes completely vanished. _

Then she had woken up and crawled out of bed.

_I had to wake up right before the good part._ Yuriko grumbled to herself. _Wait, "good part"? Did I just think of it as a "good part"?_

Before she could continue that thought to it's conclusion she was confronted by a girl with short brown hair wearing a Tokiwadai uniform and a pair of military goggles. A Misaka sister. "Can I help you?" She asked politely. She was always polite to the Misaka sisters with the exception of Last Order and WORST.

"Are you in love with the saviour asks Misaka cutting right to the point?" The clone asked bluntly.

Yuriko snarled despite her best efforts. She should have realized that the sisters would know what had happened earlier since Last Order had heard it. They were probably pissed at her. It would be normal to be angry if somebody who had killed your family members was now in love with your crush... although Yuriko doubted that many other people had had that problem before.

"No I'm not." She responded. "I just dreamt about him once because it was fresh in my mind okay? It was nothing." As she said it she wished that she knew if it was true or not.

"Misaka notices that you don't seem very sure of yourself says Misaka."

With a scowl Yuriko responded. "Look just drop it okay? Even if I did have a crush on him I wouldn't be able to do anything about it would I? As far as he's concerned I'm a mass-murderer. Which I am."

"Misaka notices that you seemed angry when you said that observes Misaka as she grills you for information."

"Just forget it okay? I don't even know his name." Yuriko demanded. It was the closest she had ever gotten to yelling at one of the clones since the experiment had ended and she felt the familiar guilt that came up so often when she was talking to one of them.

"Misaka will defeat you if you are declares Misaka. By the way Misaka received this from him Misaka brags." The clone said as it held up her necklace. "Misaka is too far ahead of you for you to ever catch up says Misaka haughtily."

Why did she feel a stabbing sensation when the clone showed her the necklace?

"Oh and by the way the saviours name is 'Kamijou Touma' says Misaka in an effort to play fair."

"Kamijou Touma." Yuriko said to herself. So that was his name.

"Have a nice day says Misaka." The clone said and then left looking oddly satisfied.

"What the heck just happened?" Yuriko asked herself when the clone was out of earshot. She had no idea why the clone's bragging had made her so irritated or why learning Kamijou's name had made her happy. _If this is love, I don't want any part of it_. She thought firmly.

Was it love? Was it even possible to love someone she had only met twice before? She knew nothing at all about love, trying to figure out her own feelings felt like stumbling around in the dark. _It's probably just a crush._ She told herself. She had probably had one of those before, when she was a kid, although she couldn't remember any. Besides it wasn't like anything could come of it. Even though she knew his name now she had no idea where he lived and would probably never even see him again.

_I should just forget about him._ She told herself. Only she couldn't stop glancing around in the hope of seeing him.

That glancing around saved her life a second later when a giant screw appeared out of nowhere and drove towards her chest. She dodged it by throwing herself to the ground and ignored the pain of the harsh landing to hit the switch on her collar.

She sprung up ready for the next attack to appear and be deflected but it never came. With a dissatisfied expression she looked over at the giant screw beside her to see that there was a note pinned on the end.

_Accelerator_

_Meet me at the address on the back. I have Last Order. _

_Sincerely Kumagawa._

With a snarl Yuriko turned off her collar and pulled out her cell phone. She dialed Last Order's number but there was no answer. It was the same with Yomikawa, Yoshikawa, and even the apartment phone. Yuriko looked at the address to see it was only a few blocks from here. She set off with determination in her eyes. She had promised that if the darkness of this city didn't shut down then she would destroy it, and she intended to keep that promise. She didn't know who this Kumagawa was but she was going to make him suffer for touching Last Order

* X *

Whoever Kumagawa was he had obviously put a lot of thought into picking out this battleground. She had gone in through the single door at the front of the building which opened into a large hallway, at the end of which was a set of double the double doors was a small rectangular room with "Wait here" written on large letters on the wall. There were no stairs despite the fact that it was a multistory building. The tiny room was empty of anything that she could have used to throw at him, and the tiny space of the room meant there was no wind for her to manipulate.

Yuriko stood in the center of the room and waited with her hand on her collar. She didn't dare hit it yet in case Kumagawa was merely waiting for her to waste the batteries. She did however take the precaution of pulling out her gun in her right hand.

Then just to be safe she took one step to the left. He could be expecting her to stand in the middle of the room and might have some attack plan based around that.

Time slipped by as Yuriko stood alone in the room without anything happening. It was half an hour before she decided that he wasn't coming. She scowled and marched towards the door with her hand still on her collar just in case.

Why hadn't he shown up? Was this just a diversion to continue with some unknown plan? That didn't make any sense, she wouldn't have known he was even doing anything at all if he hadn't kidnapped Last Order. Was it an attempt to wear out her battery to leave her defenseless?

When she go to the door there was a note taped onto it with the same handwriting that had been on the earlier one. Taped just below it were three cellphones and she recognized one of them as being Last Order's. She grabbed the note.

_Huh, did you think I would really tell you where I was?_ _This isn't Weekly Shounen Jump_.

One of the phones rang. She ripped it off and answered it "What the hell do you want?"

"Accelerator? Did you steal our phones?" Yomikawa's voice answered.

"...Is this some kind of voice software to match Yomikawa's voice?"

"What the hell are you talking about? Why do you have my phone?"

Yuriko cursed and told her what had happened, leaving out her conversation with the clone.

"Last Order is here with me. She wasn't kidnapped, it must have been a lie. I'll look up this Kumagawa person though."

Yuriko grunted an affirmative and hung up the phone. She still wasn't sure if it was actually Yomikawa but it couldn't hurt to return home to check on them. Maybe this entire thing had just been a prank this whole time.

* X *

Kamijou Touma was back in Academy City. It seemed like a miracle that he was alive. He had fought his way through World War III in order to save Index and had come face to face with some ridiculously powerful opponents. He had fought Fiamma of the right himself several times, helped take down an Archangel then taken it down on his own, and had even managed to get into a fight with Accelerator for some reason.

Now he was home no worse for the wear. Well he was certain Misaka was going to be pissed at him for not leaving with her on that helicopter but other than that his life was back to normal.

He had been picked out of the Arctic ocean by a group known as "Dawn Colored-Sunlight" and they had dropped him back in Academy City after their leader, a little girl he had met once before, told him they now owed him a favour. He was uncomfortable about owing a favour to a group he knew next to nothing about but it wasn't like he was some honour-bound knight who would have to agree to fulfill his debt even if it was something terrible.

He hummed to himself as he walked the familiar streets of the city trying not to think about all of the homework that he would have to catch up on and how Komoe-sensei and Fukiyose would react to his absence. For now he was just happy to finally be at peace.

Then out of the corner of his eye he saw Accelerator.

He hesitated before he called out to him. He didn't know Accelerator that well and the only two times they had met previously Accelerator had tried to kill him. Still though Touma wasn't one to hold a grudge and he wanted to find out if Accelerator had managed to save that person he had alluded to back in Russia. "Yo, Accelerator!" He yelled.

Accelerator froze and turned to look at him. For some reason Accelerator started blushing when he saw him. "Huh- Wah?" He stumbled out.

Touma frowned. The previous two times he had met Accelerator there hadn't been a trace of nervousness in him. But then again those times had been in the middle of a fight so perhaps he, like Touma, was more laid-back normally. "Hey I just wanted to ask if you managed to save that person you were talking about in Russia."

"Wha- Where did you-?"

"Are you okay?" Touma asked. Maybe what he had thought was a blush was actually a really bad fever.

"I'm fine!" Accelerator practically yelled. He took a few deep breaths and finally seemed to gave composure. "I got her she's fine. Only..."

"Only?"

"There... might be a situation. It's probably fine though."

"Let me help." Touma volunteered instantly. He never had been able to force himself to stay away when somebody was in danger.

"No!... I mean no. It's, it's probably fine."

Touma frowned but there was nothing he could really do if Accelerator wouldn't even let him know what was going on. "Here then. Give me your number and you can call me if you need my help." He compromised. For some reason that set off Accelerator even more although he nodded and they exchanged numbers in silence. "Alright then, let me know if you need me."

"I- I will...and... I'm a girl by the way." Accelerator stammered out. With those last few words he- no she turned around and marched away for some reason staring at her phone.

It was a good thing that she wasn't looking at him because if she was she would have seen his jaw drop. Which because of his past experiences with women he expected would probably have led to him getting injured. Accelerator was a girl?

In the end Touma shrugged. He had had weirder surprises in his life.

For now he had to go see Index and apologize for lying about losing his memory.

* X *

Kuwagawa watched from the rooftop as the two people he wanted to destroy separated. Everything was going exactly as planned... is what he would like to say but he really had nothing to do with the two of them running into each other.

He smiled his childish smile and turned his attention to the copy of Shounen Jump he was holding in his hands. Tomorrow he was certain he could destroy Accelerator. He had lied to that cyborg girl when he said he had a plan but what he did have was the ability to cheat.

* X *

When Yuriko returned home she was relieved to see that Last Order was completely unharmed. She gave her back her cellphone and diverted questions as to why she had it in order to avoid worrying her. With that out of the way she tossed Yomikawa and Yoshikawa's phones onto the couch and picked up the apartment phone. She tried to dial a random number. Like she expected it was broken.

It really had been a prank the whole time. She swore she was going to find this Kumagawa person and kill him.

For now though she had a much more urgent problem. On her phone was Kamijou Touma's number. Now that she wasn't worrying about Last Order she had time for that piece of information to really sink in. And it terrified her. She didn't feel any fear when someone was shooting her, but the thought of having a boys number terrified her? What the hell. She pulled out her phone and looked at the number almost subconsciously.

"Watcha lookin at?" WORST asked. "Misaka thinks that's quite the expression you've got there."

"Nothing." Yuriko said and snapped the phone shut. She stuffed it into her pocket just before WORST could grab it.

"Ooooh are you hiding something?" WORST asked. "Don't tell me you got that boy you were dreaming about's number?"

"No!" Yuriko yelled back. Too quickly.

"You did!?" WORST exclaimed.

"Really asks Misaka as Misaka is surprised!?"

"I- I-"

"That's great." Yomikawa said as she gave Yuriko a pat on the back. "Young love is so exciting."

"Can Misaka be your maid-of-honour?" WORST asked.

"Can I be the flower girl begs Misaka as Misaka begs to be involved in the wedding!?"

"I'm not in love with him! I only just told him I was a girl! Nothing is going to ever happen between us!"

"Young love can have it's difficulties." Yomikawa assured her. "We'll support you all the way."

"Ah Misaka knows what to do says Misaka as Misaka reveals the information she gained from the 'Misaka Network'." Last Order yelled out. She jumped onto the couch in an obvious effort to look Yuriko in the eyes and then said, "You just needs to make a harem proclaims Misaka as Misaka pretends she knows what that means!"

For a long moment the only sound was WORST and Yomikawa's laughter.

"Bahahaha!" WORST laughed. "Don't worry Kaa-san, we'll help you form one. Misaka will offer her body up to support your love."

"Misaka will too proclaims Misaka as Misaka promises to help despite not knowing what she's agreeing too!"

Yuriko bolted into her room and slammed the door. Sleep took a very long time to come to her.


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Again it's been a while. I was trying to do a chapter of a Perfect World first but I hit writers block (which is weird because I have that one mapped out very thoroughly) so I've decided to do another chapter of this first and then hopefully that will get me back into the swing of things. And again feel free to pm me/review if you think I'm taking too long.

* * *

Yuriko woke up in pain.

A normal person would have screamed and cried out for help, would have panicked and acted foolishly. Yuriko just snarled and reached up to grab her collar. That was when she noticed that her arms weren't working, and realized the pain was coming from having them pinned to her bed by two giant screws.

[Good morning Suzushina-san] A voice said from above her. A man who was obviously Kumagawa was standing over her bed, another giant screw in his hands.

"What the hell do you want?" Yuriko spat at him.

[To defeat you.] Kumagawa said with an inhuman grin, [Hey Suzushina-san do you ever wonder why shounen protagonists always go through hell to train themselves to beat their stronger opponent? Wouldn't the much simpler solution be to attack them in their sleep?]

"Shut up you scumbag."

[This is my way of fighting] Kumagawa said. [By the way shouldn't you be sleeping in a t-shirt and panties instead of paja-]

Yuriko awkwardly shoved her head backwards, forcing the switch on her collar to be hit by a metal stick she had placed in her pillow for just such an emergency. Kumagawa stopped in mid-sentence as Yuriko with her powers now working broke the giant screws like they were toys and shoved him through the doorway and into the next room with utter contempt.

Kumagawa threw a screw at her from within the living room but all it managed to do was bounce off of her and return to hit him with the flat side. Yuriko walked out of her bedroom to see him standing there calmly, completely unharmed and without even a scratch on his uniform despite the fact that she had just thrown him through a door. [How about we call this a draw Suzushina-san?] He said easily.

Yuriko just kept glaring at him and leaped across the room to him in two easy vector-controlled steps. Without hesitating she grabbed his arm and broke it with a simple use of her power. Kumagawa cried out and fell to the floor when she released him.

There was a loud bang and suddenly Yomikawa burst out of her bedroom, and her eyes went straight to Yuriko's injured arms. "Why are you bleeding?" She asked. "Who was here?" She like Yuriko was dressed in pajamas.

"Him obviously." Yuriko said pointing at Kumagawa.

"Is he invisible!?" Yomikawa yelled.

"What? No he's right there. Did you go blind?"

"...Yuriko nobody's there."

"What?" Yuriko snapped. She glared at Kumagawa and saw to her surprise that he was moving his arm around normally as if she hadn't just broken it.

[Don't you get it Suzushina-san?] Kumagawa said. [I'm not really here. This is all a hallucination that's being caused by your guilt. Nobody but you can see me.]

Yuriko responded by kicking him in the shin so hard that it broke and he fell to one knee. "Hallucinations can't injure my arms you moron. Why the hell can't she see you?"

[Ah, I see you're too smart for me Suzushina-san.] Kumagawa said with a smile. [All I did was make her ability to see me into nothing.] To punctuate the point he clapped his hands together and stood up, his shin apparently healed. Still smiling he said [Oh well I guess I lose again huh?] Suddenly a giant screw appeared in his right hand and he threw it at Yomikawa.

Yuriko broke it with a mere gesture but when she turned back Kumagawa was gone.

"What the hell is going on?" Yomikawa asked. Yuriko could hear the other members of the house begin to awaken and decided to not give chase to Kumagawa. He could have gone anywhere and she had a lot of explaining to do. Which would be rather hard considering she wasn't entirely sure what had just happened herself.

* X *

"I think I know who this Kumagawa is." Yomikawa said over the phone.

Yuriko quickly left the living room and walked into her bedroom in an effort not to be overheard by Last Order. It was the afternoon now and Yomikawa was at work while everybody else was just lounging around the house. "Who is he?"

"I _think_ he's the number six level five."

"Think? Can't you just check that bank database?"

"That's the thing, Kumagawa isn't _in_ the bank database. At first I thought it was just a fake name so I looked through for powers that could have caused what you described and I still got nothing. So I have to assume that he was erased from the bank, which has only ever happened once."

"To the number six?"

"Yes. We don't know why but one day he used his power to erase himself from the database. We have a small file on him that's emailed back and forth but anytime we try to make a public database of any sort it just vanishes."

"So what's his power?"

"It says that his power is to turn anything into nothing."

"That's not possible." Yuriko responded instantly. "There's no way that kind of power can exist."

"It says he's a gemstone." Yomikawa responded.

That made Yuriko pause. Gemstones were espers who were born with their powers or achieved them naturally instead of going through the standard esper curriculum program. They were very rare, so rare that most students in Academy City didn't even know that they existed, or thought they were urban legends. Their powers were much less structured than a normal espers were. While a normal esper's power might easily be described as pyrokinesis or telepathy a gemstone's power was far harder to classify. Yuriko had once been in a research facility with a gemstone who could change any colour into another colour anywhere around the world. That gemstone like so many others had died during the course of the research.

"What else?" She asked.

"It says he has some serious psychological issues, in fact it says that he is the most insane of the famously insane level fives."

"Screw you." Yuriko spat at her.

"Sorry, sorry." Yomikawa laughed. Then her voice turned serious. "It also says that he is the most powerful level five and is only held from the top spot because his power is completely incapable of reaching level six. He was put above number seven because they at least understand some of his powers but he's absolutely useless to researchers."

"How can his power be stronger than mine if I crushed him so easily?" Yuriko asked. The thought of an esper that could overpower her was a strange one, and not too long ago she would have laughed at the mere thought. But she had already been defeated twice by Kamijou so the thought wasn't too mind boggling.

"Maybe it's related to his psychological problems?" Yomikawa questioned. The two of them were silent for a moment until out of nowhere Yomikawa said, "Say Yuriko how about enrolling in my school?"

"Not a chance."

"Are you sure? I did some research and found out that that boy you like goes here. Komoe is always going off about how much of a trouble maker he is, and I'm sure I can get her to assign him to guide you around as a 'punishment'."

"How the hell do you know his name!?" Yuriko erupted at the phone.

"That Misaka WORST got it through the Misaka network and told me." Yomikawa said. Her tone was motherly but Yuriko could just tell she was smirking.

"Will you ever just drop that!?" Yuriko demanded "What the hell do you care if I like a guy or not!?"

"This is important as rehabilitation. We need to get you to participate in normal activities. If you won't go to school and don't have any friends then getting you to go out on dates seems like a good place to start."

Yuriko hung up the phone, wishing that it was a phone on a cord so that she could slam it. Then she marched out of her room and right out of the apartment without a concrete goal in mind.

She wandered for a while lost in thought, mostly about Kamijou. She had no idea if she wanted to start a relationship with him or not. The idea of a relationship was just so bizarre to her. She had always viewed them as a thing that other people did, something that she could never have like a family.

_You have some family now though_. Her subconscious mind told her. _Last Order, Yomikawa, Yoshikawa, and WORST are your family._

Yuriko literally missed a step with her cane and fell to the ground when that thought popped into her head. "What!?" She demanded out loud. Then she realized that people were looking at her oddly and picked herself up with a curse.

She returned to wandering and unbidden the thought returned. _Last Order is your daughter, Yomikawa and Yoshikawa are your parents, and WORST is your sister._

This time she managed to not fall over but it was pretty close "That doesn't count. I'm sure they don't think of me as family."

_Are you so afraid of being rejected that you won't even consider it?  
_  
"I'm not that messed up." Yuriko retorted.

You are talking to yourself in the middle of a crowded street.

The voice told her. Yuriko cursed and hurried down the street until she was out of sight of everybody who had seen her arguing with herself.

When she got there the thought tried to pop up again but she shoved it aside and forced herself to focus on Kumagawa, the immediate problem. She didn't know much about him but she was the number one esper in Academy City and she was confident that she could figure out how to find him and take him out.

Due to her distraction it took her longer then it normally would have but slowly she forced herself to go over the situation in her head. His goal was to defeat her but even though his power was stronger than hers was he seemed to want to fight her while she was at a disadvantage. That could mean either that he didn't know he was actually stronger than her or that he was just careful. She could set a trap and pretend to get injured in an accident but - although childish - he seemed too smart for that.

If he was waiting for a weak spot then obviously he was watching her from somewhere, but try as she might she couldn't find him. She even attempted turning her power on and using her enhanced calculation abilities to reason out where he might be but it failed utterly. He was obviously using his power in some way to keep himself hidden.

She also reasoned out two things about him: that his power didn't work on her and that he wasn't trying to kill her. It would have been easy for him to kill her in her sleep if he wanted to, and if he had simply made her power into nothing during their fight then he would have won with ease. That took some of the pressure off but not much, he was still a danger to Last Order after all.

The worst thing was she knew that she was on a deadline. She had to sleep eventually and she doubted that the trick she had used this morning would cut it again. She could handle skipping a night of sleep or even two if need be but even with all of her ridiculous power she was still human. Faking sleep wouldn't work either, Academy City had dozens of technologies that could be used to figure out if someone was actually sleeping or not.

She needed to find him, and soon.

"Um, are you okay Accelerator?"

Yuriko practically jumped out of her skin. Not out of surprise at being addressed while she was so deep in thought but because of something far far worse. She hadn't just been so lost in thought that she had completely ignored the voice, she had also walked directly into the person who was calling to her without even noticing it. Now she was standing so close that she was practically embracing him.

The person was of course Kamijou Touma.

"Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-kamijou!" She stuttered. "You-you-you-you-you-you-" Her entire body was completely red once again, and she was unable to put together a straight forward thought.

"Are you sick?" He asked, the concern in his voice genuine despite everything she had done to him. He raised up a hand to feel her forehead and at the same time - perhaps unconsciously - grabbed her left arm with his other hand. "You really shouldn't be out if you're so sick." He said.

Yuriko warred with herself. Her mind screamed at her to run away, that she wasn't ready for anything to happen with him. Her body on the other hand screamed at her to embrace him back. She wanted to press herself against him, to feel his hard body against hers, to kiss him passionately and never look back. The closeness of him was tantalizing, just a tiny inch more and she would have everything her body wanted.

Never in her life had she been so happy that somebody tried to kill her. A giant screw appeared out of thin air, hurtling at her and Kamijou. Her free hand reached up and hit the switch on her collar with record speed, but she needn't have bothered. Kamijou had stuck out his right hand almost instantly and the screw hit and broke apart with the sound of shattering glass. The pieces of the screw somehow disappeared in mid-air and if she had been in any other situation she would have questioned the physics of that.

Kumagawa walked out of the bushes like he just happened to have run across them on the road, not even seeming to notice their matching scowls. [Sorry to interrupt your lover's embrace] He said cheerfully.

"What?" Kamijou asked. Now that he wasn't in immediate danger the two of them noticed their situation at the same time. When blocking Kumagawa's attack Kamijou had wrapped his left arm around her, pressing her tightly against him. It was just what her body had been screaming at her to do before and now it was enjoying itself shamelessly. "Sorry!" He yelled and released her. He looked panicked and seemed relieved when she didn't try and kill him.

Yuriko couldn't decide if she was glad or upset that he had let go of her, but she had no time to consider it.

[Aha, darn. I was so sure the two of you would be too distracted by your hug to notice me attack you.] Kumagawa told them with a childish smile.

"Who are you!?" Kamijou demanded. He blushed for a bit but quickly changed his expression to a glare directed at Kumagawa. Yuriko really wished she could do the same thing. As it was all she could manage was a half-indignant glare over her blush.

[Kumagawa Misogi.] Kumagawa responded. The childish smile was gone from his face as he glared at Kamijou. [A man who was born a minus.]

"Why did you attack us?"

Kumagawa's face turned back into a smile. [I hate you.] He told them.

"Why?" Yuriko finally managed to get out. She had finally gotten control over her emotions back.

[Who knows? It's not my fault.] Two screws appeared in his hands and he threw them at the two of them. Touma shattered one into pieces and Yuriko reflected the other back at him. The screw flying at Kumagawa disappeared in mid-air.

"You bastard." Kamijou said. He charged at Kumagawa with his fist raised but before he could do anything Kumagawa moved faster than humanly possible and was suddenly behind Kamijou with another screw in his hands.

Yuriko hit him with a burst of wind just before the screw pierced into Kamijou's back. Kumagawa went flying like a ragdoll and rolled across the ground lifelessly. In her haste to save Kamijou Yuriko had hit him too hard and cut into him with the wind, killing him. She had even heard his neck snap as it bounced off the ground.

She scowled. She was trying to be a better person, trying to fight without killing people like Kamijou did but she couldn't seem to stop herself from it. Killing people was just so _easy_. Like she had once told a man pretending to be Unabara Mitsuki: human life was incredibly fragile, so weak that she could rip it apart with a finger.

"You killed him?" Kamijou asked. The disappointment in his voice stung her heart like a needle, but she forced herself not to look away as she watched him watch Kumagawa's blood pool on the floor. She was a killer and he was a hero. It was time she forced that thought through her head, and time that she cut all ties with him.

[Murderer!] Kumagawa yelled from the side. Yuriko couldn't move from the spot she was standing in. Before her, completely unharmed was Kumagawa. [You killed me!] He yelled, childish again.

"You healed yourself!?" Kamijou asked completely bewildered. "I heard your neck snap!"

"The blood is gone." Yuriko noted out loud. It was so quiet that she was unsure if either of them had heard it.

[What kind of monster could survive that kind of injury and then heal themselves?] Kumagawa asked. [That sort of thing is impossible for a minus like me. I died of course.]

"Don't joke with me!" Kamijou demanded. "Are you telling me that you brought yourself back to life?"

[Of course not. There is nothing that can bring somebody back from the dead. A person who has died is gone forever.]

"Then what did you do!?"

[I just made it so that my death _never happened_.] He told them. Then he gestured with his hands.

Suddenly dozens of screws appeared in the air all falling downwards. Yuriko broke the one above her with the wind and she heard the sound of shattering glass that meant that Kamijou had broken the one falling above him. Now they were standing in a field of them and at the end of it Kumagawa stood balanced on one of the screws like a character from a manga.

He opened his mouth to speak but before he could Yuriko hit him with another burst of wind, knocking him flying. Kamijou acted almost simultaneously to her. He charged out of the field with his right hand breaking the screws in his way like he was pushing aside branches. He reached Kumagawa just as he struggled to rise from Yuriko's attack and mercilessly punched him in the face.

Kumagawa only came to his feet again a few seconds later, once again infuriatingly unharmed. [Two against one?] He asked them [I didn't know that you two were the kind of bullies who liked to gang up on people weaker than them.]

"What the heck is your power?" Kamijou demanded. "Are you a magician?"

[Magician?] Kumagawa asked. [Don't be silly, everybody knows magic isn't real.]

"Then what's your power?"

[Do you really think I will just tell you my power?] Kumagawa deadpanned. [Am I a manga villain?]

"He can turn anything into nothing." Yuriko informed him.

[Exactly.] Kumagawa said. He didn't seem to care that his attempt to keep his power secret had failed. [I am someone far weaker than you are. While you can only turn the supernatural into nothing I am someone who could even erase the world. A complete minus who makes everything he touches worse.]

"Don't give me that crap." Kamijou told him "How can someone make everything they touch worse? All you have to do is reach out your hand and I'm sure you can save somebody!"

[….Hearing that from someone like you who can save people with ease is really irritating.] Kumagawa said.

"Kamijou move!" Yuriko screamed. She jumped out of the field of screws like she was jumping over a puddle, propelling herself to move with her power.

She got there too late.

Kumagawa had moved again, so fast that he seemed like a blur. He had stabbed Touma through the back with one of his giant screws and Kamijou hadn't even had the time to turn around to defend himself.

Kamijou fell to the ground and Yuriko screamed. Screamed in rage and fury, and didn't even realize what she was doing as she killed Kumagawa again with a blast of pure force. She just stared at Kamijou's blood and screamed.

She felt something building on her back, an evil she had thought she had turned away from. She knew without looking that they would soon form into giant black wings, wings that she knew would kill indiscriminately. The thinking part of her tried to force herself to stop, to regain control of her emotions.

She fell to the ground. Impossibly her battery had run out, and now all she was left with was the rage.

[Aha, all I had to do was make your battery power into nothing.] Kumagawa said to himself. [Even the number one's unbreakable defense has a weakness like that huh?]

She didn't understand the words and she didn't care. She could feel Kamijou's blood touching her hand from the floor. The evil built along her back. She wanted to kill Kumagawa, to rip him into pieces, to snap his bones, and to reduce him to dust like she had with Kihara. Some dark part of her knew that even he couldn't make that into 'nothing'.

[I finally win.] Kumagawa said. He was smiling like Christmas had come early.

His life was saved when a bolt of lightning hit him from behind. He collapsed but pulled himself up again in an instant. Misaka WORST was walking towards him with murder in her eyes. A screw appeared in his hand and he raised his arm to throw it.

Kamijou grabbed Kumagawa's hand and the screw broke into pieces. Kumagawa turned around in blatant disbelief, to see Kamijou standing with a screw punctured through his body. He appeared to be holding himself up with nothing but pure force of will. He released Kumagawa's hand and punched him in the face.

For half a second Kumagawa looked like he would still fight. Then he glanced at Yuriko and she knew he was seeing the darkness on her back even though it had not manifested yet. [No, I guess I lose again.] He muttered.

Then he was gone.

Yuriko blacked out.

* X *

Kazuo Fujita was born to fail. Or to be more precise he was born to get as close to success as possible only to fail just as he started to hope. He was a child error, abandoned in Academy City by his parents so they didn't have to pay for him anymore. He could still remember his excitement coming to the city; his parents had filled his head with stories about how special he would become, how proud they would be. He still remembered his horror when they didn't make the first payment for his school, and had blocked calls from his phone and from Academy City. The city hadn't even bothered to call the police to make his parents pay, just thrown him aside like all the others.

He remembered being isolated because of his power even amongst that group of unwanted children. He remembered them all being taken away for experiments and better orphanages that wanted them. One day when he was the last child left before the orphanage was shut down two adults had shown up looking to adopt. He was so happy, he skipped around the halls and packed his bags without even talking to them. He still remembered overhearing the administrator of the orphanage explain to them what his power was and why they wouldn't want him. They listened. It was the last time he remembered crying. Since then he had decided that the only thing he should do was laugh when his world came crashing down around him.

Kazuo was a level 3 esper and his power was to break down things around him. Items, buildings, even people. He couldn't control it. It just happened sometimes, he would be walking and suddenly a cleaning robot would start to misfunction, or streetlights would stop turning on, or someone would collapse in pain. Sometimes more than one person.

He used to think that he was the most misfortunate person in the world. Until he met Kumagawa. For the first time in his life he met somebody worse off than he was, someone who was more hopeless than he.

There were ten of them in the room, including Kumagawa. All were people like him, who lived in constant misfortune because of their powers. Kumagawa wasn't a charismatic leader who could inspire them to follow him like a hero in a movie, but his very nature drew the misfortunate to him. Everybody wanted somebody to be worse off than they were.

[Okay.] Kumagawa said with a wide smile. He was standing beside a white board with "Battle Plan" written on it. Below that were two names, Accelerator and Kamijou Touma. Kumagawa had explained who they were and Kazuo hated them with a passion. [It's time to decide how to fight these two.]

"Should we practice working together?" Kazuo asked.

Kumagawa looked at him with disappointment [Don't be silly Fujita-san, us minuses could never achieve anything by hard work.] 'Minuses' was what he called people like them, people who could only make things worse. [Obviously the only thing to do is separate them and attack while they are weak.]

* X *

Yuriko woke up laying on the couch in Yomikawa's apartment. Her battery was fully charged and she was again capable of conscious thought. Her mind played through the fight with Kumagawa again to comb for any kind of detail that she might be able to use against him. One thought that came up repeatedly was that she was lucky he hadn't realized the evil on her back had started receding when she saw Kamijou was alive.

"Are you okay asks Misaka as Misaka is worried about you?" Last Order asked from beside the couch.

"…Yeah." Yuriko replied. She pushed the blanket off of herself and sat up to take in the room around her. Yomikawa, and Yoshikawa were sitting on chairs they had pulled up to the couch. Misaka WORST was ignoring her and watching TV quietly. Touma was laying on the floor on a futon, unconscious.

"Really she made us put you on the couch instead of your bed so that she could watch over you even when she ate and you only give her a 'yeah'?" Yomikawa complained.

Yuriko ignored her. "Why isn't he in the hospital?" She demanded.

"He's fine." Yomikawa assured her. "The wound disappeared somehow. He'll wake up soon enough."

"Misaka couldn't even find any holes in the ground from all those screws." WORST told her, apparently paying more attention than she let on.

"…" Did that mean that Kumagawa had healed Kamijou? No it was more likely he had made everything he had done into nothing to erase the evidence quickly and that had coincidentally healed Kaimjou too.

"So what happened?" Yomikawa asked. "I've got an arrest warrant out on this Kumagawa but I don't have any evidence to charge him with if somebody catches them."

"They won't." Yuriko responded. Anti-Skill was the best trained police force in the world and experienced in fighting espers, but even they couldn't bring down a level five without far too much casualties for them to be willing to risk it.

"Then I have to get you in police protection." Yomikawa said and reached for her cell phone. Yuriko shook her head, but Yomikawa continued. "If we can't even see him how are we supposed to protect you from him? He could easily attack you in your sleep again and we wouldn't be able to hear him coming."

"WORST saw him." Yuriko countered. She grabbed Yomikawa's hand to prevent her from dialing the last button.

"Misaka just saw the screws and threw lightning where you were glaring." WORST yelled from the TV.

"See?" Yomikawa said triumphantly.

"Even then bringing in more Anti-Skill won't do anything and could just get them killed. Besides he won't attack me anyways."

"Why not?"

"He likes to be unpredictable." Yuriko explained. "The only things he does consistently are 'healing' himself and using those screws. Everything else is always different."

"How do you know that?" Yoshikawa asked, finally breaking her silence.

"I'm a genius." Yuriko told them without the tiniest bit of arrogance in her voice. She looked over at Last Order and a thought occurred to her. "Maybe Last Order should sleep somewhere else though."

"I give you a place to live and you don't even spare a thought to my safety, but you want the kid to move even though you don't think there's a chance he'll attack you?" Yomikawa complained, both of them ignoring Last Order's loud replies that she wouldn't leave. "Wouldn't you normally sleep somewhere else like you did before?"

Yuriko shook her head. "He won't attack me sleeping _if it's in the same place_ that it was before. He's assuming that I have defenses set up here now. If I sleep somewhere else he'll attack me there."

"Alright, I guess I can take her to a hotel." Yoshikawa said.

"Misaka won't go yells Misaka as Misaka demands you listen to her opinion!"

"Quiet brat." Yuriko said.

Last Order's reply was cut off by a loud groan from the floor. Kamijou was getting up from his resting place on the floor. "Where am I?" He asked.

"My apartment." Yomikawa told him.

"…I'm going to count this one as not ending up in the hospital." Kamijou said to himself. "Do you know why that man attacked us?"

"No idea." Yuriko told him. "He just seems to hate me for some reason, and you too apparently."

Kamijou just sighed, like someone wanting to kill him was a common annoyance for him. Which it probably was. "Alright, what do we do?" He asked. For some reason he glanced at her collar oddly.

"Nothing." Yuriko told him. "Go home. I don't need you."

He looked at her stubbornly. "I'm not leaving you alone if you're in danger."

She would have given anything to not have responded to that by blushing.

"He can share Yuriko's room!" WORST yelled. "I'm sure she'll be happy to entertain you for the night in return for protecting her."

Yuriko blushed and Touma grimaced in embarrassment. Yomikawa and Yoshikawa just watched in amusement. Last Order didn't get it. "Of course she will says Misaka as Misaka promises in her place!"

"…Anyways." Yuriko croaked out. "He won't be attacking tonight and we don't know where to find him. Go home, and I'll call you if something does happen."

Touma looked grateful for the change of topic. "Alright. See you soon then, Suzushina-san." He told her.

He was gone for a minute before Yuriko thought to ask "How did he know my family name was Suzushina?"

Yomikawa, Yoshikawa, and WORST all burst out laughing. Last Order just smiled and pointed at her collar. Yuriko looked down and could barely make out some symbols written on it. She ran to the bathroom mirror and even reversed she could make out her name written on her collar.

Written in between two cutely drawn dog paws.

She ran back into the room and straight to WORST who was still sitting on the floor in front of the TV. "What the hell did you do!?" She screamed.

WORST didn't stop laughing as she explained. "Misaka thought you would look cute in a dog collar."

It had been like this the whole time. That meant that Kamijou had noticed it, and must have thought it was something she did constantly. She turned to Yoshikawa and Yomikawa and demanded, "Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"WORST said that it would make you look cuter explains Misaka as Misaka doesn't understand why you are so angry."

Yuriko turned and ran, kicking WORST in the face as she passed her. She charged to her room and slammed the door shut behind her. Then for the second night in a row she fell asleep wishing her bed would swallow her, and plotting revenge on WORST.

* * *

**Author's Note continued: **And that's the chapter, hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review, especially if you think someone was OOC.

I'm thinking of making Yuriko running into her room in embarrassment the ending of every chapter. :D


	4. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** I've got good news, bad news, and some more good news.

The good news is that I've cancelled my other project A Perfect World and am now only focusing on this one. The bad news is the reason that I had to cancel the other one was because I am going to be getting very busy starting Wednesday. The other good news is that this means I have a lot of free time right now and I was able to release this chapter.

Hopefully the loss of free time coupled with only working on one fanfiction will even out. Then I'll just add some hard work into the mix and hopefully I'll be able to make this update even faster. At any rate enjoy the chapter.

_Yuriko stood over yet another dying Misaka clone. It wasn't a new sight to her. She had killed thousands of them before this one and she would kill thousands more before she was done. Idly she kicked the clone, using her power to make sure that it hurt. "Are you some kind of idiot?" She asked. "I keep on killing you with ease, don't you get that you're never going to win?"_

"_Misaka is not meant to win, responds Misaka." The clone said. "Misaka's only purpose is to die explains Misaka."_

_Yuriko smiled widely. "If that's what you want." She started laughing like a madwoman and with one stomp of her foot she crushed the clone's head like a grape._

"_How could you, asks Misaka as Misaka is disgusted?"_

_Yuriko stopped laughing as she turned to see Last Order looking at her with disgust in her eyes._

"_Misaka doesn't want anything to do with you anymore explains Misaka as Misaka cuts all ties with you." Last Order said. Then with that she turned around and walked away, disappearing as she did so._

"_No, wait!" Yuriko screamed. "I'm not like this anymore! I'm sorry!" She tried to run towards Last Order but regardless of how hard she tried she just couldn't get away from the dead clone she had killed._

"_What kind of monster are you?" A new voice asked. Yuriko looked up to see Yomikawa standing there and watching her with disgust. She pulled out a pair of handcuffs._

"_Yomikawa, wait!" _

"_Shut up murderer." Yomikawa said coldly. Yuriko stopped trying to argue and just sat there as Yomikawa put her in handcuffs and pushed her to her knees._

"_I'm so sorry." Yuriko sobbed._

"_Don't be stupid, how could a monster like you be sorry?" Yomikawa asked. "In fact I don't think a monster like you even deserves to serve her time in jail. Just wait here forever monster."_

_Yuriko couldn't see her but somehow she knew that Yomikawa had disappeared, leaving her alone with her sin for all eternity. _

_Then Kamijou was standing before her, with that same look of disgust he had given her the first time they met. "You're disgusting." He told her._

"_I'm sorry!" Yuriko cried, but she couldn't rise up from her knees to run to him. "Save me!" _

"_Who would want to save a monster like you?" He responded. Then he raised his fist and charged at her. This time she knew that the punch would break her forever instead of saving her._

Yuriko awoke with a gasp. At first she had no idea where she was, her panicked mind only telling her something was wrong. For a brief moment she even thought that she was being attacked by Kumagawa again but soon she regained her sense of self.

It was just a nightmare. It wasn't even an uncommon one for her. She had had the exact same one a dozen times before by now. The only difference was Kamijou showing up at the end. Normally it ended with Yomikawa leaving her there alone.

Pushing the nightmare aside Yuriko pulled herself out of bed and walked over to the washroom. Once she got there, she began scrubbing off the marker that WORST had drawn on her with. It took far longer than it should have and she eventually figured out WORST had used some special kind of marker. With a snarl she activated her power and used her it to peel the ink off, trying not to get so angry at WORST that she did something drastic. In the past she wouldn't have thought twice about using her power for such a mundane activity but now that she only had thirty minutes a day any use of her power that wasn't strictly necessary felt like a huge waste.

She walked over to the kitchen and wolfed down her breakfast, and to her surprise found the strangest thing happening. She was actually missing having Last Order's endless chatter around her. Last Order was currently staying at a hotel with Yoshikawa on the off chance that Kumagawa attacked her here again. Yuriko had expected to be glad of the quiet but instead she found it much harder to fully wake up without the energetic Last Order practically dragging her everywhere.

"Good morning." Yomikawa told her, as she walked into the kitchen and began pouring herself some cereal. She sighed when Yuriko didn't reply and added "You really need to learn some manners."

"Not a chance." Yuriko replied.

"There's nothing on Kumagawa." Yomikawa told her. "He wasn't in his last listed place of residence and nobody has seen any sign of him."

"Obviously." Yuriko remarked. She had explained this just yesterday after all. She stood up from the table and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" Yomikawa asked.

"To find him." Yuriko replied. She left the apartment without any further explanation.

When she left the building Yuriko didn't head to the previous incident's location, nor did she attempt to reason out where Kumagawa would be hiding. She simply started wandering aimlessly. It would be impossible to hunt for someone who could erase all information about himself with a clap of his hands. And in any case there was no need to hunt for someone who was likely following her around at that very moment.

She had two options; to try and figure out where he was watching her from, or to simply wait for him to think she was weak and attack her. Of course fooling a level 5 by pretending to be weak would be impossible. All level fives were extremely intelligent. So all she could do in the mean-time was idle around the city. She hated to do so in crowded streets but if he wasn't willing to kill _her _she doubted he would be willing to kill random pedestrians, and she knew he would not decide to attack her if all she did was wait in a prepared area with no one around.

The next few hours passed in a silent game of cat and mouse as Yuriko tried her best to spot Kumagawa while he watched her from a distance. Eventually she confirmed what she had guessed at yesterday, that he had used his power to make it impossible to spot him. Likely all he had needed to do was make other people's ability to see him from far away into nothing, or made it impossible to spot him from a crowd or even been so specific as to make people who he was following unable to spot him. Yuriko had thought that the #2 Kakine Teitoku had the most flexible power in Academy City but Kumagawa's power seemed limitless.

"He can't use his power on me though." Yuriko said out loud. She was currently eating at a diner and she forced herself to finish eating the meal normally before she acted.

She had thought that he would be watching her personally and simply be using his power to stop her from finding her, but if she could defeat that simply by turning on her power wouldn't that be a ridiculous tactic? Therefore it would be better to watch her from the security cameras that were everywhere in the city. She hadn't thought of him as an esper who could access the security network with his power because it had nothing to do with electricity, but it would probably be a simple matter for him to turn all the security into nothing.

Instead of leaving the diner Yuriko ordered a dessert and picked up her cellphone. She sent a text message to Yomikawa while attempting to look natural.

_Yomikawa can you tell me if anyone if anyone is accessing the security camera at the diner I'm in?_

After around ten minutes she got a message back.

_Yes, I got the address of the person doing so. It's ************ I'm on my way there._

Yuriko cursed. She had meant to go there on her own and she hadn't considered that Yomikawa would jump at the chance to do so herself. She threw a large amount of money onto the table without waiting for the bill and hit the switch on her collar. Once she walked out the door she made one massive leap with her power and suddenly she was flying on her way to the address.

It took her about ten minutes to get there. When she did all she found was a group of Anti-Skill officers lying around with giant screws stabbed into their bodies. It was a cheap motel room like she had suspected. The second she saw Yomikawa she ran to her side and began using her power to keep her alive, trying to fight past her rage.

It didn't matter in the end. Half a minute later all of the screws disappeared leaving no wounds and not even any clothing damage. Kumagawa had made it so that the whole thing had never happened.

"Yuriko!?" Yomikawa gasped, disoriented.

Yuriko didn't say any calming or kind words like a normal person would have. She did however help Yomikawa to her feet. "Did you get anything?" Yuriko asked.

"No." Yomikawa replied. "We broke down the door and he destroyed us all in a matter of seconds." She glared at one of the men who was looking like he would wet himself soon. "One of us even shot him. He just clapped his hands and the wound was gone."

"Damnit." Yuriko cursed. She left the group of Anti-Skill to shake themselves off and set off to get the battery on her collar recharged.

* X *

Kamijou Touma was used to going back and forth between hectic life or death fights and peaceful school life. He had gotten involved in so many life or death situations that switching back to a peaceful mode afterwards was natural to him now. However he was still unused to returning to school while somebody was actively trying to kill him. Especially when he didn't know anything about said person trying to kill him. Suzushina had promised to call him if anything came up but from what he knew of her he doubted that she would actually do so.

So he sat through the school day feeling uneasy and failing to concentrate on any task that he was assigned. Suzushina didn't call him. When the day at long last ended he was the first out the door without saying a word to anybody.

Of course his misfortune wouldn't allow him to have an uneventful day just because he was preoccupied. Kamijou Touma was an existence that misfortune would come to even if he was already lying on his deathbed. There would never be any rest for him.

He was walking home like he normally did when out of nowhere a blond girl wearing a white dress fell out of the sky. She hit Touma and the two of them fell to the ground. By the time Touma recovered from the shock he was already in a very dangerous position. The girl was lying on top of him and her rather large breasts were pressed against his face.

"Pervert!" The girl yelled and pulled self to a sitting position. She tried to slap him but Touma was so prepared for it that he caught her hand in mid-swing, as well as the other one which quickly followed. That left them in the incredibly awkward position of her riding on him while he forcibly held her hands. The girl blushed.

"Get back here!" A voice called out from nowhere. Touma turned to see a group of three men in suits running towards them. One of them pulled up his hand and a fireball came out of it. Touma released the girl's hand and stopped it with a single touch of his right hand. The girl just gasped and looked at him in wonder.

"You can stop magic?" The girl asked.

Touma pulled the two of them to their feet and took off running, one hand pulling the girl along by her hand while the other blocked attacks from the trio of magicians. Touma had defeated dozens of magicians before but he wasn't some shounen hero with a ridiculous power. The only thing he could do was negate, and while that was incredibly useful for fighting a single magician when fighting several he would be unable to block all of the attacks at once.

"Such misfortune!" He cried.

* X *

It took Yuriko a few hours to get her power recharged. First she tried going to the hospital with her power but when she got there she found the charger that Heaven Canceller kept there missing. A note was there in its place.

_IOU one recharger._

_-Kumagawa_

After that she attempted to go home to use the one there but as she suspected she found it missing as well.

Finally she had resorted to crudely charging it with a cable that she cut open and applied to her neck. It was very delicate as she had to use her power to guide the electricity. Which meant that her power had to be on while she recharged it, making it take even longer.

Fortunately she didn't have to worry about Kumagawa attacking her while she was in the middle of it. Even if the Anti-Skill members hadn't done any harm to him they still would have made him wonder if he had a security leak and try and patch it up. She estimated that she would have at least until sunset before he tried something else.

When she was done a thought popped into her head. He wouldn't risk going after _her_ until he was sure he knew how she had gotten to him, but that same protection wouldn't apply to Kamijou.

Yuriko snarled and took off. She didn't know where Kamijou lived but she knew where he went to school and the school would be closing soon. She was far _far_ too nervous to call him and explain the situation. Yuriko had never been a person with social skills and the thought of calling the boy she liked for the first time was just too nerve-wracking. She literally couldn't force herself to hit the call button no matter how many times she pulled up his number. Texting was also out of the question. She just couldn't get the words right.

So she walked in the direction of his school and eventually she found him. Running for his life. With a beautiful foreign girl clinging to him.

Yuriko snarled and just watched. Eventually he and the girl were separated by the three chasing them. One was attacking Kamijou while the other two ran after the girl.

Yuriko reached the girl and crushed the two men chasing her in twenty seconds. It wasn't even an effort for her, she merely tapped the two men once each and they both collapsed with several broken limbs.

The girl took a moment to regain her composure. "Thank you!" She finally said. "Thank you so much!"

Yuriko just glared at her picturing how she had been pressing herself against Kamijou as she ran.

The girl wilted a bit under her glare. "How about the man that I was with? Can you save him too?" She blushed just a little bit. "I don't want anything to happen to him."

"Stay away from him." Yuriko found herself saying. Then she turned around and stalked away hoping that WORST never found out about this. She would be called a yandere for the rest of her life.

When she got to Kamijou there was no need to save him. She reached him in time to see him punch the man in the face and knock him to the ground. Then without a pause he turned and ran towards where the girl had been.

Which of course made him crash right into Yuriko.

They hit the ground with him on top of her, his hands pinning down her arms. She really _really_ wished that her first thought hadn't been 'what if this happened on a bed?' coupled with a mental picture of it. By the time he realized who she was, she was blushing so much she was surprised he recognized her.

"Suzushina-san?" He said. He at least had the decency to blush too. He braced himself like he thought she would slap him but the thought of doing so never entered her mind. She was far too preoccupied trying to force her mind away from how much she enjoyed being pressed up against him. It wasn't working.

"H-h-hi." Was all she could get out.

"Sorry I've got to go help someone!" He yelled in a panic.

"No, stop!" She yelled. "I saved her already!" _Wait did I just try and stop him from going to see her, or was I trying to keep him on top of me?_ She asked herself.

"You did?" Tension left him as he said it and he relaxed. Which made him subconsciously stop rising and just sit there to take a deep breath. Neither he nor Yuriko made any movement to separate.

"Young people today." A woman hissed as she passed them.

Yuriko and Touma came back to themselves. Touma practically jumped off of her and she rolled to the side. The woman didn't look back to see them do so, and a quick glance around showed nobody else was around. Yuriko would have dropped dead of embarrassment if any more people had seen it happen.

"An-anyways." Touma said. "Did you come looking for me about that Kumagawa guy?"

"Yes!" Yuriko replied, so glad for the change of topic she couldn't help but yell. She explained the story about what had happened about Kumagawa, and why she had come looking for him. The only things she left out where how she couldn't build up the courage to use her phone to call him and how she had demanded that the other girl stay away from him out of jealousy.

"I guess I should go see if she's alri-" Touma began.

"She's fine!" Yuriko said, more forcefully than she meant to. She grabbed Touma's hand and pulled him in the opposite direction of the girl just in case. She was so intent on it that she didn't even think twice about holding onto his hand.

When they were far enough away Yuriko finally released him. "Now what?" Kamijou asked. "Do you know how we can find Kumagawa?"

"Not yet." Yuriko told him honestly. "I doubt he'll attack us again until sunset, and I have no idea how to find him."

"So we just have to wait for him to attack us then?" Kamijou asked.

Yuriko nodded. "There's nothing else we can do."

"Alright," Kamijou said. "Then how about we stay together tomorrow? We can wander around the city together until he decides to attack. That way we can fight him together."

Yuriko was dumbfounded. She opened her mouth to reply but she just couldn't get any coherent words out. She meant to say "Is it a date?" But instead it came out as "Isitadate?" Her heart was beating out of her chest.

Kamijou obviously didn't understand what she said but he seemed to gather what she wanted to say from looking at her face. "Ah- not as a date!" He asserted. "It's just so we're not split up!" He blushed but not nearly as much as she was.

Yuriko couldn't decide if that made her feel better or worse. On one hand now she was no longer shaking, but on the other some part of her felt disappointed. "O-okay then." She squeaked out.

"I'll meet you at your apartment tomorrow at noon then?" Kamijou asked unsteadily.

Yuriko nodded. Then she ran away.

* X *

Yuriko got back home about an hour later and collapsed onto the couch without saying a word. Last Order tried to talk to her but she was still in shock and everything seemed like a blur.

"Are you okay?" Yomikawa finally asked her at dinner. "You're even paler than usual. Did Kumagawa do something to you?"

"…No." Yuriko finally made herself say.

"Then what is it?"

"…Kamijou is coming here to pick me up at noon tomorrow. We're going to spend the day together in case Kumagawa attacks…"

Everybody at the table stopped eating and just stared. Yomikawa, and Yoshikawa smiled at her in shock. WORST started laughing. "You're going on a date!?" She exclaimed.

"It's not a date!" Yuriko exclaimed.

WORST started singing "Yuriko and Kamijou sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-"

Yuriko threw some rice at her with a fork. It hit her right between the eyes and made her stop talking. "Shut up." She said with a warning growl.

"That's great Suzushina." Yoshikawa said. "Have you decided what you're going to wear yet?"

"Wear?" Yuriko asked. The thought had never entered into her head.

"You can't go on a date with that on." Yomikawa insisted. "You have to look cute. A girl shouldn't wear the same clothes over and over again."

"It's not a date." Yuriko insisted but nobody listened to her.

An evil gleam entered into WORST's eyes. "Don't worry, Misaka will take you shopping." She said. She stood from the table and grabbed Yuriko from behind by both of her arms. "Misaka knows what to buy to please your boyfriend."

Yuriko struggled but WORST had her by the arms and try as she might she couldn't get away. "I'll kill you." She vowed.

"Calm down." Yomikawa told her. "WORST does have a point. We should take you shopping. I've been thinking about doing it for a while now."

"I'm not buying anything." Yuriko glared at her.

"Don't worry I'll pay for everything." Yomikawa said.

"Let's go then." Yoshikawa added. "I'm sure this Kamijou boy will be sure to complement you on how you look."

"Complement me?" Yuriko said, almost to herself. The thought wouldn't leave her head. She felt happy just in the anticipation of the compliment.

WORST, Yomikawa, and Yoshikawa took advantage of her momentary distraction to grab her and force her out the door. Despite her protests Yuriko was pulled along by them. Yomikawa and WORST each held her by one arm and pulled her along with them, preventing her from hitting the switch on her collar.

None of them noticed that Last Order was still sitting at the table staring off into space.

* X *

Last Order had thought that the earlier outcry on the Misaka Network, when Yuriko had revealed she dreamed about Touma, to have been very large and distracting. Now she saw that it was absolutely nothing compared to what the panicked Sister's were capable of.

For a long time there was no actual discussion going on just a lot of yelling, pointing metaphorical fingers, and using newly learned swear words. It was around 15 minutes before anything close to a reasonable discussion was begun.

"Enough arguing, what do we do asks Misaka #19643?"

"Misaka proposes that we implement her harem plan immediately, says Misaka #16572 in her attempt to take advantage of the situation to push forward her own goals."

"Misaka moves to block Misaka #16572 from this discussion proposes Misaka #10050."

"Seconded Misaka #10150 adds."

There was a loud chorus of agreement around the network.

"You'll all be sorry when the saviour leaves us for Yuriko vows Misaka #16572 before she is cut off!"

"Does anybody have a reasonable plan asks Misaka #17364 now that the pervert has been excluded?"

"Misaka proposes putting all of our efforts into stopping Kumagawa before tomorrow so that the date is cancelled without the excuse to have it, suggests Misaka #15439."

"Impossible, states Misaka #19973 bluntly. All Misaka's in Academy City are already hunting for Kumagawa and only the Misaka WORST unit has come across him and that was by accident, Misaka says."

"Shouldn't that collection of our negative emotions be too upset right now to assist Yuriko points out Misaka #12322?"

"It seems that Misaka WORST is too ecstatic over getting to tease Yuriko so much to even notice it Misaka #18888 explains."

"Is she some kind of monster Misaka asks #12322, surprised at the answer to her question?"

"There's no time to talk about this, insists Misaka #19747."

"Misaka suggests her earlier idea of cutting Yuriko off from the network Misaka #15541 proposes as a drastic course of action.

"That would just lead to a 'nursing the girl back to health' scene at this rate warns Misaka #10777."

"So there is nothing we can do to despairs Misaka #12229?"

"Misaka proposes that she and the other Misaka's in Academy City watch them during the date and make sure they do not have any romantic moments, suggests Misaka #10032."

There was a long quiet pause until finally a chorus of agreement came in.

"Misaka won't let you sabotage this moment for Yuriko yells Misaka as Misaka finally buts in!" Last Order yelled. She wasn't going to let them ruin Yuriko's first date.

"Crap Misaka didn't consider her, curses Misaka #10059."

"Misaka will prevent your evil scheme warns Misaka as Misaka poses victoriously."

"If you don't let us do this Misaka will tell on you, blackmails Misaka #15541"

"What yells Misaka as Misaka gets assaulted by an underling!?"

"Misaka will tell Yuriko and Yomikawa about all the cookies you have stolen, warns Misaka #15541."

"What foul play cries Misaka as Misaka tries to resist the mutiny!"

"It's too late for that now, Misaka #15541 says as she cruelly takes pleasure in beating a young girl."

"Curse you yells Misaka as Misaka gives in to the blackmail in defeat!"

"Good luck then wishes Misaka #13543 as she wishes she could be among the Sisters who will be present to sabotage the date."

"The Misaka's already in Academy City will have to be enough, Misaka #20000 says sadly."

* X *

Yuriko had never really been shopping before. Sure she had bought clothing before but really all she had done was look in the men's department for a shirt she thought looked cool and then bought a ton of them and a ton of jeans. She was possibly the farthest thing from a stereotypical girly girl that had ever lived.

Which made the situation she was currently in a thousand times worse than it would have been otherwise. She was just too disoriented to fight back properly.

Yomikawa, Yoshikawa, and WORST took her to a large clothing store and after forcibly taking her measurements they began giving her an endless pile of clothing to try on. She barely had the presence of mind to stop WORST from forcing her into very slutty clothing as part of a sick joke. Yomikawa and Yoshikawa didn't even try to help with that, just laughing and saying that girls needed to have some clothing like that.

In the end Yomikawa bought her about six different outfits. All of them had skirts instead of pants, but when she complained about that the three insisted that she had enough pants already. One of them was one that WORST chose, with a tiny mini-skirt so small she would never bend over in it and a shirt that was so thin she could have sworn it was see through.

Next came the lingerie shopping. That was possibly the most indignant thing that she had ever experienced. By the time she was done Yomikawa had bought her three new pairs of underwear, a red one, a black one, and a white one, all very lacy. She would die before she wore any of them but none of the others listened to her when she swore she wouldn't.

The only thing she really managed to achieve was stopping WORST from dragging her to a costume shop for something to wear to surprise Kamijou. Yomikawa and Yoshikawa had been on the fence about it and she had just barely managed convince them it would be a bad idea.

Overall though it was a disaster. She was so caught up in all of it she hadn't even considered using her power to escape. If Kihara or any of her other former enemies had seen her they would have fallen over dead from shock.

When she finally got back to the apartment it was already dark out and she marched into the living room in silence while Yoshikawa and the others congratulated themselves on "finally getting her to dress like a woman". Last Order was sitting playing some game and when she came in Yuriko could have sworn she wanted to tell her something before deciding against it. On any other day she would have asked her about it but she was still recovering from her recent ordeal. All she did was instruct her to spend another night in the hotel with Yoshikawa, ignoring her protests.

After that she collapsed onto the couch and started thinking about tomorrow. It wasn't a date. Regardless of what the others said it was not a date. They would just be spending the day together, going around town and doing a bunch of different activities. Alone. Nothing at all like a date. She repeated that to herself so many times that she almost got herself to believe it.

"So what's your plan for the date tomorrow?" WORST asked her.

"It's not a date." Yuriko insisted heatedly. She had had enough of WORST for one day already. Hell she had had enough of WORST to last a week or two already.

"If you go to the date without a plan it's destined to fail." Yomikawa said wisely. It was just the three of them in the room now as Last Order and Yoshikawa had already left.

"It's. Not. A. Date." Yuriko bit off.

"I got you these." Yomikawa told her. She handed Yuriko a pair of tickets for the Academy City aquarium show tomorrow. "I sneaked off to buy them while you were going through lingerie. You two can go to the show tomorrow and before that spend an hour or so wandering around the dimly lit aquarium. It'll be very romantic."

Yuriko looked at the tickets with a mix of dread and anticipation. In the end she tucked them into her pocket telling herself that they had to do _something_ tomorrow, so they might as well to this.

"Misaka got you something much better." WORST said. She held out two tickets as well, these for a movie that was showing tomorrow. "Just imagine the two of you in a theatre in the perfect darkness. He makes a move and you pretend to resist. Then he insists and the two of you ******** and ******** and *********."

Yuriko punched her in the face.

Then she ran into her room blushing wildly. She ripped up the movie tickets knowing that since WORST had bought them they would probably be for a porno or something. She did put the aquarium tickets safely on her nightstand though.

Filled with thoughts of tomorrow sleep took a very long time to come to her.

**Author's Note Continued:** And that's the chapter, hope you enjoyed it. I expect this will be 3 more chapters followed by an epilogue before it's done.

There was no Kumagawa in this chapter :O. I'm sorry but I just couldn't fit him in. I was going to show him beating up the Anti-Skill members from his perspective but I just can't get his voice right. There was a tiny bit from chapter one with him as the viewpoint character which was originally longer but I had to cut that down too. Well I guess he works better when we're seeing people react to him anyways.

I've always wanted to do a scene where Yuriko acted as a yandere, so the girl getting chased by magicians part was put in just for that :)

As a side note I've changed the rating to T, which it really should have been from the beginning for violence.


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:** So uh… hi. Sorry about the wait (yet again) more detail below.

* * *

For what was probably the first time in her life Yuriko carefully examined how she looked in a mirror. She had woken up at an ungodly hour and been far too nervous to fall back asleep. So instead she decided to just get up and go about her morning tasks. Now she was showered, dressed, and had eaten breakfast and she still had two hours before Kamijou would show up. So in the mean time she fretted over how she looked.

Despite her vows to never wear any of the clothing that she had been forcibly bought last night she was wearing one of the outfits. It had a tiny skirt on it but at least there were leggings to cover up her legs unlike that one WORST had gotten her. Wearing it was an almost surreal experience for her. She literally couldn't remember the last time she had worn girlish clothing. Perhaps she had done so as a kid but if so she couldn't remember it.

She was even wearing the red pair of lacy underwear. Not by choice but because WORST had apparently stolen all of her other pairs and then disappeared before Yuriko had even woken up. Yuriko had a very lengthy revenge plan for when she saw her again.

The only line she didn't waver on was not wearing any makeup. As long as she did that she could still insist that it wasn't a date, it was just them staying together to avoid getting attacked separately. Besides she had no idea how to apply makeup anyways.

"See, you look very cute." Yomikawa told her. Yuriko jumped, she had been so focused on her thoughts that she hadn't heard Yomikawa enter the bathroom and walk up right behind her.

"It's not a date." Yuriko blurted out.

"Did I say it was?" Yomikawa laughed.

Yuriko scowled at her and walked to the living room where she promptly began pacing back and forth. A thousand possible different scenarios played over in her head, from the two of them having fun together to scenes of him calling her a murderer and walking away from her. Mostly though she just kept glancing at the clock as the seconds ticked by.

When Yomikawa finished her shower she came out and started to attempt to calm Yuriko down. "Relax." She told her. "Everyone gets nervous before their first date. I'm sure it'll be fine."

For once Yuriko didn't even protest that it was not a date. She just forced herself to sit down and turned on the TV to pass the time, while Yomikawa engaged her in conversation in an obvious attempt to keep her mind off of it. Time passed slowly regardless, and Yuriko felt a large pit of nervousness growing in her stomach.

When noon came and the doorbell rang Yuriko practically fell over herself to answer it. Touma was standing at the other side wearing a pair of jeans and a stylish t-shirt. He looked almost as nervous as she did.

For a brief few seconds he just looked at her obviously surprised to see her dressed in a femine manner, but he quickly recovered and said. "Ah, Suzushina-san. Ready to go?"

Yuriko just nodded not trusting herself to speak, and the two of them left for their completely-not-a-date.

"Was that Yomikawa-sensei?" Kamijou asked. "Is she-"

"She's just looking after me." Yuriko cut in. "We're not related."

"Ah." Kamijou said. The two of them walked in silence until they excited the apartment building when Kamijou asked. "Do you want to go get lunch?"

"Sure!" Yuriko yelled. She had been so nervous from the silence that she just blurted out her answer.

Kamijou just gave her an odd look and didn't say anything. The two of them walked over to a local diner and ordered lunch, keeping up a rather stiff conversation. "So," Kamijou said as they waited for their food to arrive. "Do you know anything more about this Kumagawa now?"

"No." Yuriko said simply. She was far too preoccupied with her thoughts at the moment for a much longer answer. Every awkward moment they had had so far was playing over and over again in her head, wondering if they were as bad as she thought, and thinking of what she could have done to fix them. She was also wondering if having lunch together meant that they were on a date or not. The only information about dating she had was from television and as far as she could tell, lunches were definitely dates.

_Enough of this._ She told herself firmly._ Focus on Kumagawa right now._ It took a lot of effort but she pushed away the thoughts and focused herself on the manner at hand. Namely that they were currently being watched by an insane level 5 who wanted to hurt the two of them for no discernable reason.

The food arrived and Yuriko told Kamijou everything she knew about Kumagawa over dinner, what Yomikawa had told her, what she had reasoned out herself, and even went over a few things she had already told him just to be sure. Kamijou asked several intelligent questions and Yuriko answered to the best of her abilities. As they talked Yuriko found herself growing more and more comfortable with Kamijou, for a moment almost forgetting their current situation.

"So we can't do anything but walk around together until he decides to attack huh?" Kamijou asked. He didn't say it resignedly, but almost like he appreciated it.

The check came and Touma insisted on paying for it which made Yuriko blush. She argued but he insisted on doing it, and she didn't have the social skills to talk him out of it without being rude. In the end she was able to convince him to let her leave the tip at least.

"So is there anything you want to do?" Kamijou asked. "I didn't really plan anything." He said it nervously like he expected her to freak out at him but she just nodded and pulled out the tickets Yomikawa had given her.

"We can go here."

"An aquarium show? Is that why you dressed like that?" He asked carelessly. He must have misread the nervousness on her face because he backtracked and said "Not that it looks bad! It's actually very cute!"

"Cute." Yuriko mouthed to herself quietly. The comment made her both embarrassed and blissful at the same time.

Kamijou looked like he had dodged a bullet. "Let's go then." He said in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

Yuriko nodded hurriedly and the two of them left. This time their conversation as they walked wasn't nearly as forced.

* X *

"Misaka hereby begins the operation 'ruin the saviours date' Misaka #10032 announces." The four Misaka sisters were standing in an alleyway only a street away from the couple. It was a common habit of theirs to meet in alleyways as it allowed them to avoid public attention. People tended to notice when four people with the exact same face walked together.

"Are the Misaka's gathered here enough to prevail against the rouge Misaka WORST unit inquires Misaka #19090? The Misaka WORST unit is a level 4 while we remain at level 2 Misaka explains."

"Misaka believes the advantage of numbers will allow us to prevail Misaka #13577 insists."

"Regardless of the odds the Misaka's will engage, for we have too much to lose Misaka #10032 says as if she was in a war movie."

"Misaka would also like to point out that we already know the Misaka WORST unit's plans due to her connection to the Misaka Network, but at the same time she knows ours, Misaka #19090 exposes. Therefore since our victory condition is to stop the date and hers is to merely allow it to continue isn't her victory inevitable Misaka despairs?"

"Do you really think that the Misaka WORST unit will merely allow the date to continue as normal Misaka #10039 replies smugly? The Misaka unit will try and interfere with the date to embarrass Yuriko Misaka explains. We can use this as an opening to attack. However the methods the Misaka WORST unit uses will likely bring out Yuriko's feminine side which may make the saviour fall for her Misaka warns."

"Misaka will overcome any obstacle necessary to succeed in her love, Misaka #13577 states strongly."

* X *

The walk to the aquarium passed quickly for Touma and Yuriko as they talked and found themselves enjoying their conversation surprisingly much. The two of them had very similar senses of humour and liked a lot of the same things. A couple of times Yuriko even forgot to be nervous.

The two of them had no idea of the epic battle that was going on behind the scenes.

Academy city had experienced hundreds of battles that happened in the shadows, out of public view, before. Before Yuriko shut down the dark side of Academy City such things were daily activity. Often times more than daily. However this was probably the first time one of those fights had been conducted over a single date.

Both sides of the conflict had access to the powerful Misaka network, and both used it to their full advantage to come up with plans in a matter of seconds. Then the other side would counter that plan just as quickly.

Gusts of wind created by windmills that would have exposed Yuriko's panties to Touma were stopped in their path by other gusts of wind. Falling buckets of paint that would have ruined the atmosphere between the two of them were caught with magnetism in mid-air. Attempts by WORST to "accidently" bump into one of them and knock them into the embrace of the other were stopped in their path by the other sisters. The Misaka sisters routed more traffic into the area which had the unfortunate side effect of making Touma hold Yuriko's hand for a few minutes like in a cheesy romantic movie. And that was only the beginning. In the end though neither side was able to accomplish much of anything, and were so dedicated to staying quiet that the couple didn't notice it was happening at all.

At long last Yuriko entered the aquarium with Touma to find it packed. There were people all over the place, crowding the lines to the washrooms and few snack benders. "I guess we should have figured it would be packed on a show day." Yuriko said, mostly to herself.

Academy City's aquarium was open to the public for free all year round, however it was more of a research facility than it was a public facility. Most of the time people came here they would find nothing but a few fish and a lot of empty tanks as most of the research was done in the back rooms. Once a week however the aquarium hosted a public show for a charge in the interest of securing additional funding they couldn't get from the city. Generally the only time people came here was on the show day, making it extremely packed.

"Do you want to go get seat or look around a little first?" Kamijou asked her. The show would take place outside in the large pool, but in the meantime the tanks were currently filled with tons of exotic fish that were actually the result of experiments in breeding and gene manipulation.

"Let's look around first." Yuriko told him. The two of them left the entrance room of the aquarium to begin walking around the halls. Yuriko found herself wishing that Kamijou would hold her hand like he had outside for a minute but he merely walked beside her normally.

For a person not accustomed to Academy City the fish currently on display would have seemed like an impossibility. The fish were so beautiful and majestic that a normal person would have assumed they were CGI. They came in every colour imaginable, not the result of having many different kinds of fish but because the fish were literally capable of shifting their colours. Some shifted slowly over time, some shifted all of a sudden, and some shifts were even controlled by the scientists with pulses going through the water to manipulate the fish's brains and make the fish change colours in a pattern. That was only the tip of the iceberg. There were fish that glowed in the dark, fish that could change their shape like a mimic octopus, and even more wonders that left Yuriko jaw dropped. It was amazing what Academy City could do when they turned their attention to making beauty instead of cold logical science.

Unconsciously Yuriko stepped closer to Touma, and just as unconsciously he put his arm around her. They walked like that for a while in perfect silence, neither making the slightest attempt to pull away from each other. Together they took in the beauty of the sights in wonder, letting all sense of time slip away from them, and getting lost in the gentle music. Eventually a single misstep from a person walking beside them knocked Yuriko's cane away. She wasn't angry at them, she didn't even try to call out to them. Her struggle to avoid falling had put her directly into Touma's embrace, staring at him face to face. She gazed into his eyes, and then at his lips. Mind dazed she slowly lifted herself onto her toes to-

"Attention customers, the outdoor aquarium show will be starting in five minutes." A voice announced over the speakers.

Just like that the spell was broken. The romantic music turned off and the crowd of people who had been quiet the moment before were suddenly very loud as they called to their friends and all tried to get outside and get seated in only five minutes. Yuriko was left standing in Kamijou's embrace trying to come up with some sort of excuse to explain what she had been doing. Both to give to him and to herself.

"Uh… we should get going." He said. She wondered if she was imagining the regret in his voice.

"Yeah…" Yuriko agreed. She stepped back from him and tried to act natural as they made their way outside to the show.

* X *

"That was a close one Misaka #10032 says with relief."

"We got very lucky Misaka #19090 agrees."

During the time the couple had been lost their own personal world the sisters had completely lost track of them. A combination of the large crowd, distracting fish displays, and low lighting had made it nearly impossible to follow them around without causing a disturbance. They had caught up to the couple right after they began their passionate embrace and had been unable to do anything but watch helplessly as they struggled to think of a plan. They had only been saved by the announcement and they knew that without that the two would undoubtedly have kissed.

"Was that the saviour's misfortune acting up, questions Misaka #19090 out loud?"

"Misaka would like to declare this mission a success declares Misaka #10032."

Misaka #10032 and Misaka #19090 were now hiding in an employee only area below the stands, both to watch the crowds on the camera screens for any sign of Kumagawa and to watch the couple. An unconscious guard they had easily dealt with was laying off to the side.

"The date will not be over until Kumagawa attacks refutes Misaka #19090."

"True, Misaka agrees. However the only 'romantic' part of the day has now ended and with Misaka #13577 and Misaka #10039 stationed in the stands they will be able to overcome any other situation that might arise Misaka #10032 argues."

"There is still the troubling issue of the Misaka WORST unit's disappearance Misaka #19090 points out."

"She has likely given up Misaka #10032 assumes."

"She has taken the trouble of masking her intentions from the rest of the Misaka network for the last hour Misaka #19090 reports. Obviously this is a sign that she has some sort of final move planned Misaka pessimistically concludes."

"How can she mask her intentions from the rest of the Misaka network, Misaka asks?"

"The Misaka WORST unit was designed to resist the commands of the system administrator so it's possible she has something related to that to avoid our notice that she has been saving as a trump card."

A sudden commotion from the spectators above them brought the two sister's attentions back to the screens. The show was over now and all of the spectators were rising to leave their seats including Touma and Yuriko.

"With the only planned activity now over the couple will surely grow bored of each other soon Misaka #13577 assumes." Miska #13577 said over the Misaka network.

"The only thing that remains is to-"

Misaka #10039 was cut off by a sudden announcement from the speakers of the stadium.

"Attention customers." A voice from the speaker said. "We have just received word that the brand new Academy City Ferris wheel has been completed and we have been instructed to tell you that all rides for the first day are free."

Evil laughter erupted onto the Misaka network as Misaka WORST reconnected in order to gloat. "I win." She declared.

"Did you create an entire Farris wheel just for today Misaka #10032 asks with disbelief?"

"Misaka just got them to speed the production along and offer free rides with the use of blackmail." WORST gloated. "She made sure that this was the only place that heard about it. Now she just has to wait for the two to take a ride together all on their own and then she will let nature take it's course."

"We Misaka's will not let you succeed in this, Misaka #10032 declares."

"Misaka has checked the surge protectors on the Ferris wheel. They are easily strong enough to prevent damage from the number of bolts you can produce. Misaka could stop it but she is far stronger than you are. There is no hope for you." WORST said, gloating like a villain from an old cartoon.

Misaka #10032 turned her gaze to the screen in desperation. To her horror Touma and Yuriko were getting directions from an employee and obviously getting prepared to go to the Ferris wheel.

* X *

"That was very conveniently timed." Kamijou said.

"Almost too conveniently timed…" Yuriko agreed. She and Kamijou were walking down a street in Academy City towards the Ferris wheel that had just opened up. She was very suspicious about it. It had happened just as she had said 'what do we do now?' and she hadn't seen WORST all day. She wouldn't put it past WORST to have spent the day getting the Ferris wheel ready as part of some elaborate plan to embarrass her.

"…Now that you mention it there is no way my misfortune would allow something that convenient to happen." Kamijou muttered.

"It's probably nothing." Yuriko said quickly. She really didn't want to break up the current atmosphere between the two of them for any reason whatsoever. It had taken a while for them to get comfortable after she had almost kissed him and now she was willing to defend that comfort even if it meant turning a blind eye to a possible prank from WORST. She glanced at Kamijou in a forcibly casual way, trying to figure out if he realized what she had tried to do to back in the aquarium. Luckily –or maybe unluckily- he seemed to think it had just been an awkward bump into as he hadn't said anything about it since.

_Why the hell did I try to kiss him?_ She screamed at herself in her mind. She had been asking herself the same question repeatedly since the incident. Did this mean she actually did love him like WORST joked, or was it just a spur of the moment thing? Maybe she just found him attractive and there was no other reason beyond that. _I'm supposed to be the smartest person in the entire city and I can't even figure out if I like a boy._ She complained to herself.

"Are you okay?" Kamijou asked.

"I'm fine." Yuriko spat out. He was far too good at noticing when something was bothering her for her comfort.

The walk to the Ferris wheel was almost as uneventful as the walk to the aquarium had been, although for some reason Yuriko kept feeling an aura of despair and desperation from the crowd around her. She put it down to her nervousness but for some odd reason it made her uneasy.

"I haven't been on a Ferris wheel since I was a kid." Kamijou said conversationally.

"I don't think I ever have." Yuriko told him.

"Never?" Kamijou asked with shock.

"At least as far as I know. I don't remember much before... the experiments started." She said. The majority of her childhood had involved less going out to play with friends and more getting experimented on in inhumane and psychotic tests.

"I see." Kamijou said sympathetically. He didn't press the conversation any further but he also didn't pull away from her in worry.

They arrived at the Ferris wheel not too long after that. "Is this place really ready to be opened?" Kamijou observed. The area around them was not at all like you would expect a typical public attraction area would look like. It was largely undecorated, with several areas that were obviously only half finished and tons of construction signs still up. The only thing completely finished was the Ferris wheel itself. "Maybe they opened early because they were running out of money?" Kamijou wondered aloud.

"Then why would they be giving away rides for free?" Yuriko questioned. This was looking more and more like some sort of elaborate setup from WORST. She didn't say anything though. When dealing with WORST it was best to let her spring her trap and then punish WORST afterwards. WORST usually had a backup plan or two just in case something went wrong that might even be worse than the original.

"There's barely anybody here too." Kamijou continued. The area around them was mostly barren filled only with a couple of people Yuriko half recognized from the aquarium and a few people who were obviously just discovering the Ferris wheel was open now.

"At least there won't be a line." Yuriko said.

It wasn't until they got onto the Ferris wheel that Yuriko realized it was a bad idea. She had been so glad to have something to do and so nervous about the moment in the aquarium that she didn't even consider what being on it would be like. She and Kamijou were on it together. Alone. They had been alone the whole day together technically but there was a vast difference between being alone in a crowd and being alone in a tiny room where nobody could see them.

"Ah-" She stuttered out.

Kamijou seemed to have come to the same conclusion that she had. "Ah-" He responded. "It's beautiful isn't it?" He said in an obvious attempt to draw her attention away from the awkward pause.

Yuriko looked out over the city and nodded although it was really nothing special to her. She had used her powers to fly before and the sight of the city from above wasn't all that unique to her. In fact it was almost-

"WORST!" She screamed jumping up from her seat to glare at WORST out the window by Kamijou. WORST was currently standing at the bottom of the ride and waving in a way that made Yuriko know that she was smiling with a perverse glee.

"What!?" Kamijou exclaimed, turning to look out the window the Yuriko was glaring out of. However they were already at the top of the ride now and it was impossible for him to see from his angle in the chair.

"No it's-"

Yuriko's explanation was cut off by a sudden intense shutter as the Ferris wheel stopped in it's tracks all of a sudden and she fell backwards. One of the worst things about her impaired movement was that she now fell over a lot easier. Something that WORST had figured out quickly. So even the slight change of momentum had sent her falling.

Right into Kamijou's lap.

WORST couldn't have planned it more perfectly if she had tried to.

A blush filled Yuriko's cheeks as she looked as Kamijou and then back to herself, noting what they must look like. Anybody looking at them would have thought they were a very deeply in love couple on a romantic date. Yuriko had never been gladder in her life that WORST currently couldn't see her.

The most surprising thing though was how comfortable she felt there, sitting in Kamijou's lap. Not a single part of her wanted to get up, not even the part of her that was screaming about how bad it would look if WORST saw them. Sitting in Kamijou's lap felt right. She made no move to get up and he made no move to push her off.

"Who was that?" He asked. There was a slight blush in his cheek but overall he didn't seem unhappy about the situation.

"WORST." She said. For some reason she felt like if they continued talking normally and didn't acknowledge there was anything unusual she wouldn't have to get up. "She's the first of a new generation of Misaka clones. She was supposed to kill me but I turned her to my side and shut down the project." She explained. Which was unusual to her. She normally didn't tell people this sort of thing so easily.

"So she's not trying to attack us?" Kamijou asked. When she shook her head he continued "That's a relief. I thought that she was working for Kumagawa or something. I guess she used her electricity to stop the ride?"

"I didn't feel any shock." Yuriko muttered. How had WORST disabled the ride without using her powers? Had she bribed or blackmailed the owners? No WORST would have wanted Yuriko to know that she was the one who had stopped the ride.

He fell silent after that and Yuriko didn't try and raise a conversation. She merely sat there enjoying the feeling of her body against his.

"Did you try to kiss me earlier?" Kamijou asked out of the blue.

"What?" Yuriko sputtered. She turned completely red but she still didn't make any attempt to rise. Instead all she could think about was how she was sitting in Kamijou's lap in a tiny room where nobody could see them where they would remain for who knows how long, talking about kissing. She stared at his lips.

"I… just thought that you… Never mind I guess it was just my imagination…"

Yuriko blushed even more somehow. "No… I-"

The only thing that saved their lives was how she happened to see out the window with the corner of her eye. In half a second she had hit the switch on her collar and jumped out of the Ferris wheel, ripping through the heavy metal wall of the little room like it was made of paper. Half way through her jump four black tornadoes appeared on her back and she began to fly. In mid-air she caught the flying object that had been hurtling at the two of them and threw it so that it would land harmlessly on another building.

The attack had come from a different building and the man standing on it jumped off right in front of her eyes. She couldn't make out the details but she could see him land without slowing down at all and apparently shrug it off.

She glanced back towards Kamijou who was staring at the man who had jumped just like she was. Like her he had apparently put aside the awkward conversation until later, while they dealt with the immediate threat. She considered leaving him standing there on the Ferris wheel where he would be safe both to protect him and in case his power made it impossible to carry him down. In the end she decided to risk it and carry him down so as to not endanger any of the other passengers on the Ferris wheel. Who were all screaming.

"Was that Kumagawa?" Kamijou asked as she picked him up, being very careful to avoid touching his right hand.

"I think so." She told him.

"Same here." He responded.

When they landed on the ground they saw WORST lying on the ground unconscious. Beside her stood a man and a woman.

"My name is Kazuo Fujita." The man said. "I want to kill you."

"I have no need to tell you who I am." The woman said. "I'll still kill you regardless though."

* X *

"Misaka is under attack yells Misaka #10032!" Misaka #10032 yelled as she ducked behind cover. Kumagawa Misogi the man she had been on the lookout for had just jumped off of a building to land in front of her completely unscathed, and started attacking her without pause. Her gun had stopped firing after she only got off one rubber bullet, and that rubber bullet had seemingly done no damage to him.

Reports were coming over the Misaka network of the other three sisters in Academy City being attacked as well. The final battle had truly begun.

* * *

**Author's Note Continued: **So yeah. This took a while. I'm sorry about that.

Want to help it go faster next time? There's something you can do to help.

There are two things that I set out to do when I wrote this fanfiction. First of all was my decision to do it almost entirely from Yuriko's POV. I'm a guy, and because of that I don't know if I'm any good at writing female characters, so recently I've been making the conscious decision to use female POVs in my fanfic much more often to help me improve. Secondly I wanted to try and make Yuriko an adorable character, while still keeping her as the badass, powerful, and intelligent character that she (he, but you know what I mean) is.

So what I'm asking is for reviews telling me how I'm doing on those two things. Honest reviews, no sugarcoating.

If I get three reviews that mention those two things I promise I'll update this in another week if it kills me.

Thanks for reading.


	6. Chapter 5

Yuriko immediately knew that the woman was the more powerful of the two. There was an aura around her, much like the one around Kumagawa only a lot less depressing. It was like looking at a candle after looking at a bonfire, it was hard to be scared of a candle's fire right after standing so close to the heat of a bonfire. Of course in this case the candle might still be enough to kill her if she wasn't careful.

The man on the other hand didn't look like much of a threat. From the way he didn't take any sort of defensive stance Yuriko assumed that he couldn't control his power, either that or he was just so powerful that he didn't need to but Yuriko doubted that.

Yuriko jumped at the woman without hesitation, using her power to make the jump faster and stronger than any normal human would be capable if. By her calculations she should have reached the woman in about half a second. Instead half way through her jump she realized something was wrong. She hadn't intended for the jump to be a high one, just to shoot her straight towards the woman, but against her will she just kept rising until by the time she had reached the woman her foot was about an inch above the woman's head. Something had happened to alter the trajectory of her jump, and she had no idea what.

Without the leverage of the ground all she could do to stop herself from moving was throw wind in front of her to cancel the momentum. However something messed with her calculations again and instead of slowing her down to give her time to make the four black tornadoes she used to fly, the force of the blast sent her hurtling to the ground, which she hit with a thud.

The entire thing had taken about five seconds.

"Yuriko!" Kamijou cried out. He obviously didn't know what exactly had happened but he ran towards Yuriko anyways. Or at least he did until with a sudden cry he collapsed onto one knee.

"Already?" The man said with surprise. "I really didn't think my ability would work at all this fight. I guess you really are as unlucky as Kumagawa says you are." His expression changed to a smile and he advanced towards Kamijou, pulling a knife from his pocket. "Try not to die too quickly on me okay?"

Yuriko didn't even bother to watch as Kamijou stood up and punched the man in the face, trusting him to keep himself alive for a few minutes longer. Instead she watched the face of the woman as Kamijou rose. As she had suspected a look of surprise crossed the woman's face. The woman was obviously the one who had messed with her power, and didn't get why whatever she did hadn't worked on Kamijou.

"Kazuo!" The woman yelled. "Why the hell won't my power work on him?"

Hearing his name called distracted Kazuo for a minute, allowing Kamijou to successfully rip the knife from his hands and send it skittering across the ground. Kazuo retreated back from Kamijou with a scowl on his face. "Didn't you pay any attention to Kumagawa?" He called indignantly.

"Why the hell should I have to listen to th-"

Her reply was cut off when she was hit by a blast of wind that was strong enough to throw her ten feet. Apparently her power couldn't actually interfere with any of Yuriko's power it just did something to mess up her movement. Instead of using her power to propel her to the woman Yuriko walked across to her normally. Still however after one step she ended up floating in the air a few inches above the ground and rising.

"I see." Yuriko said with a smile. "So your power is to remove gravity huh?"

"I don't have to tell you anything." The woman said, but Yuriko knew that she was right.

With that settled Yuriko quickly constructed her four black tornadoes and did a few practice movements as the woman rose to her feet. In no time at all Yuriko was able to move accurately despite the lack of gravity. With that done the fight was over. The woman had no way to defend herself as Yuriko closed the distance between the two of them and lightly tapped her in between the eyes. That was enough to knock out the woman for at least a few hours. Yuriko gently lowered herself to the ground now that her gravity was back and clicked off her power.

Yuriko spared a glance at the building Kumagawa had been on top of but before she could go towards it she turned and walked over to WORST's unconscious form. Kamijou had finished knocking out the man he was fighting, and walked over to WORST as well with a slight limp in his steps.

Yuriko leaned over WORST and started to examine her. She was no doctor but she didn't think that WORST would die anytime soon.

"Take her to the hospital." Kamijou said. He had that look of determination on his face that he got whenever something serious was happening.

Yuriko nodded. "What's wrong with your foot?"

"He broke one of my toes somehow." Kamijou informed her. He didn't seem all that upset about it. Yuriko figured he was just growing used to getting injured by now.

"Sorry that I can't take you too."

"I'll be fine. By the time you get back I'll have beaten up Kumagawa." Kamijou promised.

Yuriko smiled at him, and once again was filled with the urge to kiss him. Instead however she hit the switch on her collar, picked up WORST like she was a princess and took off. She had the full intention of getting back before Kamijou got into any more danger.

Of course things didn't work out that perfectly.

Yuriko was attacked as soon as she flew herself over the first building. Whatever it was hit her like a sledge hammer and knocked her off balance. WORST slipped from her arms practically in slow motion as they fell towards the roof. She prioritized slowing WORST's fall over catching herself and as a result she crashed for the second time.

Three men stood on the roof with her and WORST's unconscious body. "As expected, minuses like us can't even complete a plan this simple without faults." The one in the middle, a very tall man with several very ugly scars on his face, said.

"Well, we should still be able to kill her anyways." The man on the right said.

"Indeed, indeed." The man on the left laughed.

* X *

Through the Misaka network Misaka #10032 had enough experience fighting an opponent stronger than herself to know that she was going to lose this one. There was something about fighting Kumagawa that felt like fighting Accelerator, both of them so casually did things that she could never hope to accomplish. Misaka's loss was inevitable.

That didn't mean she wasn't going to try and stop him however.

At the very least she could stall for time until Yuriko and the Saviour got there.

Misaka jumped out of her cover and sent out a bolt of lightning from her forehead while she fired her gun in a short burst. Kumagawa was hit both by the rubber bullets and by the electricity and fell to the ground. A normal person would have been out after that, either too weak to stand or unconscious. However Misaka was not surprised when he stood up, uninjured like nothing had happened, as this was not the first time in their fight that she had hit him with enough force to put him down only to have him make it into nothing.

A screw appeared into his hand from nowhere and he threw it at her with enough force to imbed it in the wall behind her when she leaped out of the way. She caught herself in a roll and was back on her feet in moments.

[Can please stop trying to suffocate me?] Kumagawa asked in his odd way of speaking. [It's not very nice of you to try and kill me when I just want to seriously injure you.]

Misaka let out a soft curse as her private fear was confirmed. She had been doing the same thing she had done to Accelerator, attempting to suffocate him by breaking up the oxygen in the air into ozone. However it hadn't seemed to be working, and just as she had feared he had caught on and had been reversing the process the whole time.

Misaka shot Kumagawa with a few more rubber bullets, not because she thought they would work but because she needed the time to think up a new strategy.

When he rose up a few seconds later she still had nothing. He seemed to realize that she was finally out of tricks and he smiled. [Game over] he said as he pulled another screw out of nowhere and jabbed it into her arm. Then he stabbed the other one, leaving her pinned against the wall.

[I won!] He yelled. The serious look he had had on his face for the fight was gone and he looked like a child. [Now I get to see your panties a-]

Her kick to the face cut him off. As did the 50,000 volts she delivered along with it. Her arms hurt an incredible amount but through the memories she had gained from the other sisters who had fought Accelerator she had gained a high pain tolerance. It had been common for Misaka sisters to get their arms or other limbs ripped off, but still continue trying to fight.

Kumagawa pulled himself up again but this time Misaka had a real plan. With a huge amount of effort she grabbed onto all the metal on his body and used them to lift him up into the air. She was nowhere near as strong as the original but she was still capable of something like this. It took a lot of concentration but she managed to lift him high enough that falling down would kill him.

"Misaka is aware that you can make her magnetism into nothing, Misaka yells! However this would result in you falling t-"

When he disappeared she was so shocked that she just stopped speaking mid word. She was afraid to take her gaze away from the sky and look down but eventually she forced herself to. Kumagawa was standing where he had been before she had pulled him into the sky.

[Why do you look so surprised? All I had to do was make the fact that you pulled me up into the sky into nothing.]

Misaka could despair rising from within her and in a desperate attempt to avoid falling prey to it she hit him with the only weapon she had not attempted to use yet. His own screws. She pulled them out of her arm with her power and hurtled them at him at her top speed. She didn't expect them to seriously injure him but she needed to do _something_. She screamed as they tore their way out of her arms and she gave into the pain.

[Shouldn't you just give up already?]

At that moment she didn't care if he died, or if she did. She just grabbed onto him and started releasing as much electricity into him as she could. She absolutely refused to stop knowing that the moment she did he would make all her effort into nothing and walk away the victor.

She lost track of how much time she held onto him for. She just kept going. She didn't stop when he fell to the ground, she didn't stop when he stopped moving, and she didn't stop when she was forced to fall to her knees beside him. She didn't stop until she had wrung every last bit of power out of her body and she fell to the floor. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours.

The last thing she saw before she collapsed from her injuries and exhaustion was Kumagawa, once again completely unharmed, looking at something she couldn't see and saying [I guess this was a loss huh?]

* X *

Kamijou was ambushed almost immediately. He had been running towards the building Kumagawa had attacked them from when three women had stepped out of nowhere and attacked him. Not with some sort of psychic power but with baseball bats. The three of them were rather frail looking and not very strong, but it didn't take much strength to hurt someone with a metal bat.

"What the hell do you want?!" Kamijou shouted as they beat him with the bats. It took a few hits but eventually he was able to grab onto one of them and wrench it from their hands. "What reason do you have to attack me?!"

"I feel like it."

"I really hate you."

"I just really want to beat you up."

Kamijou scowled at them. "What the hell kind of reasons are those? Are you willing to attack innocent people just because you feel like it?!"

"God you really do make me so irritated."

"Kumagawa was right about you."

"I just want to crush you to death."

"What the hell!" Kamijou yelled at them. The two who had bats were still trying to hit him, and he was barely managing to thwart them off with his bat while the girl he had grabbed it from tried to grab it back. It did not look anything like a heroic struggle where the hero beat up each opponent one-on-one with a few moves. It was far more chaotic, and not nearly as elegant. Not only was it ridiculously hard to hit the girls while trying to defend himself against their superior numbers, he had to be sure that when he did hit them that he didn't kill them. With his strength one hit in the head with enough force would be more than enough to kill them with the heavy metal bat. The end result was that he slowly took more and more hits while only managing to occasionally hit them. "What the hell did Kumagawa tell you about me?! I have no idea what he told you but I have no reason to fight you!"

"We want to fight you!"

"This is our revenge against the world!"

"I am so sick of people like you!"

The girls had started to lose their cool as they were unable to knock out Kamijou, and their calm remarks had turned into yells. "What the heck kind of reason is that?! Explain it better you bastards!" Kamijou yelled. Then with one very satisfying crack he was able to knock the bat out of one of the girls' hands. He planted one foot on it before the girl could pick it back up and now it was down to just him and one other girl. "Why the hell can't you guys do something productive with your lives?!"

"That's impossible for people like us!" The girl whose bat he had knocked away yelled at him. She had very long black hair and her arms were covered with bandages. "Someone like you who can save people all he wants is so damn irritating!" She raised up both of her arms and made a gesture at him. Kamijou cursed and tried to position his right hand to block it but he was forced to focus on the girl with the bat who was still attacking him.

A weak force hit him in the chest, about as strong as a casual shove. Had he been standing around casually it might have made him lose his balance for a second but standing like he was all it did was irritate him.

However that was not the only effect it had. The girl who had done the attack let out a loud scream as several deep cuts dug their way into her upper arm. Blood started pouring out of them and before he knew it her entire arms were red. She collapsed to her knees.

"Are you okay?!" Kamijou yelled. He swung with as much force as he could manage and successfully knocked the bat of the girl who was still swinging at him away. Then he kicked the bat below him as far away as he could and ran over to the injured girl. "What happened?"

"I am a minus. This is all I can do." Was all the girl said. She attacked him with her power again, this time hitting him in the nose and making his eyes water. Even more cuts appeared on her arms.

"Are you hitting me even though you can't control the backlash?!" He exclaimed.

"That's… right." The girl was panting now. "I…am only able to hurt myself. That is why… I hate you."

"What the hell kind of reasoning is that?" Kamijou asked. He never got an answer just a sort of twisted smile that made him duck out of instinct. It saved his life a second later when he could hear a bat swing through where his head had been. He had spent too much time talking to the girl. He rolled away and got to his feet like a hero in an action movie, although far less elegantly. "Is that what all of you think?!" He demanded.

The other two girls now had their bats back and were staring at him with unmasked hate.

"Of course." The girl on the left said. She had blond hair almost as long as the girl on the ground, and a mean look in her eye.

"Obviously." The girl on the right said. Her hair was dyed pink and was very short, like she was herself.

"Attacking other people because you feel worthless… I'll destroy that messed up illusion!" Kamijou yelled at them.

"Stop talking!"

"Just die!"

Kamijou clashed with the two girls again but this time something was different. He could tell his words had at least partially reached them because they both were much more hesitant then they had been before. It was a small difference and most people wouldn't have even noticed it but it was enough.

Kamijou threw his bat at the girl on the right without any hesitation. She blocked it but he hadn't been intending to take her out with that in the first place. His fist came in a few seconds later and caught her by surprise, directly in the face. She went down and Kamijou knew she wouldn't be getting back up. Then he got hit on his left side by the girl who was still standing.

It was the first full on hit he had taken and it hurt an astonishing amount. Nevertheless Kamijou grabbed onto the bat with both his hands and wrenched it from the girls grasp. "Don't try and fight with such a shitty resolve you moron!" He told her as his right fist connected to her face.

Kamijou looked at the girl who was on her knees and bleeding from the arms. She was staring at him with wonder as she tied on more bandages without even having to look. "Will you be alright?" He asked her. To his surprise she nodded meekly and looked back down to her bandages. He could tell that she had a lot of experience putting them on. "Just because your esper power is worthless doesn't mean you are." He told her. "So don't be stupid enough to use it again to prove something."

With that done he turned to the building Kumagawa had jumped down from and began moving towards it. He had one broken toe, several bruises, and it would be a minute before his eyes stopped watering, but he kept moving anyways.

* X *

Misaka #10039, Misaka #19090, and Misaka #13577 had perfect synchronization. The thing that made the Misaka network so dangerous was not the strength of its individual members but rather the fact that all of them could work together perfectly. The ability to communicate instantly with any other member gave them an advantage no one else in the world could claim they had.

However for once it was no use. The Misaka sisters who were literally connected by their brains were unable to communicate. To Misaka #13577 the other two sisters seemed… off. They would move very slowly, react to things that had already happened, and their "speech" over the Misaka network would be really slow. Then one of them would start moving incredibly quickly, their "speech" coming in so fast that the other two couldn't understand it, while the other moved, while the other moved at about half of their speed. Then they would move slowly. Then quickly again, then slowly, and then back to quickly yet again. It changed constantly and randomly.

The attacker moved at different speeds too, most of the time quickly and occasionally normally. However he never moved at a normal speed for long enough to get a hit on him, only in short bursts before switching back to moving quickly again.

Because of this the fight was basically one giant mess, like watching a video game character glitching. It didn't seem to have any sort of set rule or pattern, it just shifted constantly.

It was obviously a result of the man's power but the very nature of it made it hard for Misaka #13577 to figure out what it was. She never had the time to think about it very long. One moment he would be fighting one of her sisters across from her and the next he would be right beside her and hitting her with what appeared to be a large wooden plank. Every time she felt that she was just about to reason it out she was suddenly fighting for her life with an opponent that moved three times as fast as she did.

The only thing she had managed to notice was that he never moved faster than her lightning or her rubber bullets. He always took the trouble to step to the side while she was aiming or charging up her electricity.

With that fact in mind she did the only thing she could think of, she waited until he got close enough to her and released electricity all around her. It hit him of course but not strongly enough to take him out. Misaka #13577 had only a fraction of the original's strength and while the original could produce enough power to take out everyone all around her with one burst of electricity, Misaka #13577 could not do that. By releasing all her power at once it spread her power out so much that getting hit was only painful.

The man looked at her with obvious scorn for a second but then he started moving very quickly and she became unable to catch up to him. He hit her with his odd wooden board about three times before what Misaka hoped would happen did. Misaka #19090 who was moving at the same speed as him let out a burst of electricity just like she had, followed by one from Misaka #10039. Both of them hit the man.

Miskaka #13577 smiled to herself. Just because the Misaka sisters could not communicate through the Misaka network did not mean they could not communicate through simple observation.

The Misaka sisters dominated the rest of the fight after that, relentlessly attacking the man again and again with the same attack. If it had been a video game they would have been accused of cheating for using the same move over and over. Their unending attacks, although far weaker than their normal ones, eventually wore the man down.

The man let out a loud scream and all of a sudden everything was moving at normal speed again. There was a lot of concern coming over the Misaka network but Misaka #13577 ignored it as she and the other sisters aimed at the man and mercilessly shot him into unconsciousness with rubber bullets.

With the calm restored understanding filled Misaka #13577. The man had likely been using his power to slow down time for each of the Misaka sisters. She did not know if he had done it telepathically by altering their perception of time or by literally altering time but in the end it didn't matter. When she had thought he or the other sisters was moving really quickly she had just been slowed down. Likely he had only been able to effect two of them at once and that was why at least one of them had always been moving at the same speed as him.

She realized something else too, something she had not noticed at all until just now. The sun was about to set. It had only been few hours after noon when the fight started but their perception of time had been so skewed it had advanced several hours before she had noticed.

It was now far too late to help in the fight with Kumagawa.

* X *

Yuriko looked at the three men cautiously, trying to reason out a way to attack them. It was possible that one of them would have a power that would mess with her calculations like the woman had and she didn't know which of them had attacked her, or how. "What plan?" She asked them.

"Oh it's nothing special." The man on the left said. He had black hair and was wearing a very expensive suit that looked awful, it was fit terribly and all the colours were mismatched. "We were just supposed to wait for you to find that women over there and split up from that Kamijou guy, and then we were supposed to attack you four on one each. But those two had to go and attack on their own. Really we minuses are such troubling people." He said it with a casual smile and a laugh, like he was talking about the antics of children.

Yuriko studied the three of them while he spoke. The man with the terrible suit seemed the most dangerous. She would take him out first and then the man with the scars, followed by the other one. If she attacked with-

Yuriko took a long look at WORST. She didn't know how long she had.

It went against every hard-won instinct in her body but Yuriko decided to prioritize getting WORST to the hospital over defeating the three in front of her. In the past she would never have been able to make that decision. Before fighting and killing had been all she was capable of. Now though, she was finally able to protect people.

Yuriko slammed her fist onto the ground in an unnecessarily showy way to begin manipulating the wind. She launched it at the men and they all took separate actions to protect themselves. However it was in the end meaningless as the wind had been a weak one, meant as nothing more than a distraction. While they were busy protecting themselves Yuriko grabbed WORST and took off towards the hospital.

She got hit once more by some sort of invisible force as she flew away but this time she was braced for it and she didn't collapse to the ground. She still had no idea what it was or why it could get past her deflection but she didn't need to in order to get WORST to the hospital.

When Yuriko arrived at the hospital that Heaven Canceller worked at she didn't land. Instead she just checked through a window to see if anybody was in the way and then unceremoniously chucked WORST through it, using her power to protect her from falling glass. WORST would still be treated either way, and she wanted to get back to Kamijou as soon as possible.

The three men were still waiting for her on top of the building when she got back. The man with the terrible, yet expensive, suit was smiling at her like a child seeing Santa Claus. The other two were scowling at her.

"Just like I thought you really do complete me Accelerator." The man with the terrible suit said. "You have finally made my worthlessness valuable." To punctuate his sentence he made a gesture and Yuriko once again felt that invisible force slam into her. She charged at him but that only resulted in her getting hit in the face yet again.

"Hurry up and finish her off." The man with the ugly scar told her.

"Yeah, minuses like us can't take the time to gloat over our victories." The other man, who had red hair and freckles, said.

"Don't be jealous." The man with the awful suit laughed. He repeatedly gestured and Yuriko was hit again and again by some invisible force.

It reminded her of fighting Kihara, and Kamijou. For some reason the enemy was completely capable of ignoring her absolute defence and attacking her with impunity.

Fortunately for her though this enemy did not have the ability to cancel her attacks like those two had.

Ignoring the pain, Yuriko controlled the vectors of the wind around her and used it to swat the man off of the building. The only thing that stopped him from falling to his death was the fact that she had flown over to grab him.

She held him there in mid-air for a minute before she spoke. She wanted to give him time to fully realize the position he was in, and give in to his fear. The change came exactly as she had expected it would, one minute he was brave and looking at her defiantly and the next he was staring at her with naked fear. She had seen the change thousands of times from people who had tried to challenge her.

"Wh-what do you want?" He asked. Luckily he wasn't stupid enough to attack her while she was his only lifeline.

"How the hell are you attacking me?"

"I'm telekinetic! But I can only make my 'force' pull away from things so it's normally useless!" He shouted with fear.

"So it's something that simple huh…" Yuriko was constantly surprised by how often other people came up with ways to surpass her "unbreakable" defense. "What can the other two do?"

"They're telepaths! They can only produce negative emotions though so that's why they're minuses! They told me they couldn't affect you though, so you don't have anything to worry about!" The man paused to look below himself after that, taking in the heights some more. "I told you so let me go! Just let me go! Please!"

Yuriko dropped him.

She 'caught' him with the wind just before he had hit the ground, but he had no way of knowing she would do that. Likely he had collapsed with fear and if he hadn't he would be running away soon enough.

Taking out the telepaths after that was easy. Yuriko's power was able to deflect telepathic attacks just as easily as she could physical ones. This was not common knowledge however and Kumagawa had likely assumed she would be weak to telepathic attacks.

Yuriko looked around for Kamijou below the building but he was nowhere to be found. He had probably already ran off to fight Kumagawa. She gritted her teeth and went after him. They would face Kumagawa together.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Alright everybody I'm looking for some feedback here so I'm willing to offer the deal I did last chapter again. Give me three reviews that tell me

1) If Yuriko's POV is believable or you are constantly going "Oh you can tell a guy wrote this"

and

2) If Yuriko still seems like a badass even though I'm writing her as rather "feminine"

And I'll update within a week of the third review. I don't even care if everybody tells me how much they hate my writing of Yuriko as long as it's constructive criticism.

If this seems like shameless reaching for reviews, that's because it is. I really need the feedback.


	7. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **Here it is! Just like I promised, within a week of the last one because I got the reviews I wanted. It's actually done in a day which is a personal record.

Now I know some of you are wondering why if I can write a chapter in a day I normally take so long to update. However this is not a normal situation, there were two reasons I could do this. First of all I had a day off and I devoted the entire thing to writing and proofreading this. And secondly I had been envisioning this chapter for a long time so I didn't even get a seconds worth of writers block.

I hope you enjoy the chapter

* * *

Yuriko caught up to Kamijou quickly. It required wasting some of her precious battery power to fly, but it was worth it if it meant Kamijou didn't have to face Kumagawa alone. "Are you okay?" Was the first thing that she asked him. He was covered in bruises and his limp had gotten much worse.

"I'm fine." He reassured her. He glanced her over, obviously looking for injuries, and Yuriko tried to pretend that she wasn't hurt in any way. "What happened to you?" He stopped walking to ask. He was looking at her mouth with worry.

With a frown Yuriko remembered that she had been hit in the face by the man whose power could get around her reflection. She wiped her mouth with her arm and to her surprise there was blood. She was so unused to getting injured she hadn't even thought to check. "I'm fine." She assured him.

"You're bleeding."

"So are you."

"I…don't want you to get hurt." Touma said.

Yuriko's heart skipped a beat when he said it but she didn't back down. "I can handle myself." She said stubbornly. She walked past him without waiting for him to follow.

He seemed to agonize over the decision for a minute before he suddenly caught up to her. She didn't know where the sudden protectiveness had come from but she was hoping it was a good sign. She leaned on him a little for support as she had forgotten to pick up her cane in her rush. They walked in stoic, but not unfriendly, silence the rest of the way.

As they grew closer Yuriko began to hear something, a sort of buzzing that grew louder as she grew closer. "Electricity?" She realized.

"Electricity?" Kamijou echoed. "Is Misaka somehow involved?"

Yuriko felt a bit of sadness at how immediately his thoughts jumped to Misaka Mikoto, but she was too worried to focus on it. WORST had been injured, and if WORST had been here then that might mean Last Order was nearby as well. They picked up their pace.

What they found was different than what they expected. Instead of finding Kumagawa hurting Last Order or Misaka Mikoto, they found one of the Misaka sisters kneeling over Kumagawa and delivering a constant stream of electricity. Yuriko was about to smile with relief when the Misaka sister fell over and Kumagawa stood up without a scratch on him. Yuriko hit the switch on her collar immediately.

[I guess this was a loss huh?] Kumagawa said. He sounded bored, like he hadn't just been within an inch of death.

"…Get away from her." Kamijou said. When Kumagawa didn't respond he added "Get the hell away from Misaka Imouto. Can you not hear me?" with anger practically steaming out of him like in a cartoon.

For a split second Yuriko was suddenly thrown back in time. Those had been the exact same words he had once said to her as she stood over a Misaka clone about to kill it. For all she knew it was even the same one. Was this what she had looked like? Standing there while an innocent person suffered without a care in the world? Had she really been this cold, this cruel?

Yes she had been. She had been far worse than Kumagawa. She had soaked herself in so much blood she was still surprised she hadn't drowned in it. But that didn't matter now. She would never be truly forgiven for her crimes not by the people who mattered, the clones she had killed, but that didn't matter. Regardless of whether she was a good person or a bad one, a hero or a villain, she was still going to save that Misaka clone and protect herself and Kamijou.

Yuriko snapped back to the present as Kumagawa spoke. [Shouldn't you be telling _her_ to get away from _me_?] He asked. [You saw how she was attacking me after all.]

"Shut up." Yuriko told him. Kumagawa liked to talk but she had no intention of listening to him.

[Ah, shouldn't you be falling over right now, Accelerator-san?] Kumagawa asked her. [I just made your battery into nothing.]

"You can only affect my battery and not me because my battery isn't a part of me right?" Yuriko explained. "So all I had to do was _accept this collar as part of my personal reality._

[Is it really so easy to do something like that? Wouldn't that mean that that collar is now a part of you? That you could never be separated from it again, even if a miracle restored your brain to full power?]

Yuriko felt no hesitation as she answered. "As if that matters. I have already accepted that I will wear this collar for the rest of my life."

[…Things like that are what makes me hate you.] Kumagawa frowned.

"Just tell me why you are doing this!" Kamijou demanded from Kumagawa. "You and all those other people, why do you feel the need to attack us?!"

[…Kamijou-kun…If you saw someone about to die in front of you what would you do?]

"I would save them of course." Kamijou responded without hesitation.

[I see, I see. It's that sort of answer that makes me hate you so much.]

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

[Accelerator-san.] Kumagawa said, completely ignoring Kamijou's question. [Why are you able to save people? Shouldn't someone like you who has been a killer for so long be unable to save anybody?]

"…As if that matters." Yuriko told him.

[It's because of that that I hate you.] Kumagawa was giving off an aura of foulness and hatred that almost made Yuriko want to cower. [I hate people like you who can save people when I can't! I hate people who can get over their dark past when I can't get over mine! I hate how you can be strong when I'm weak! I HATE PEOPLE WHO CAN BE HAPPY WHEN I'M MISERABLE!]

Kumagawa's screws stabbed at Yuriko's body. Her reflection broke them effortlessly, but it didn't matter. Kumagawa was gone before she could retaliate, and Kamijou let out a cry as Kumagawa stabbed two giant screws into his body.

Even with that Kamijou did not give up. He touched the screws with his right hand almost immediately after they pierced into him, causing them to shatter. His body was already stabbed into, but he had stopped the attack before it had gotten life threatening.

[I guess it's pointless.] Kumagawa admitted. [Accelerator can block my power effortlessly and you just have to touch my power to negate it. I suppose it's impossible for me to win after all.]

"So you're going to stop fighting?" Kamijou questioned.

Yuriko didn't believe that. Kumagawa still had his malevolent scowl. She would have to-

Kumagawa clapped his hands. The world shuddered.

Yuriko couldn't see. She wasn't blind, she didn't have her eyes covered or closed, and it was the middle of the day. But she still couldn't see. It was just so dark. There wasn't a single shred of light anywhere to illuminate things.

[Even if I can't make you into nothing _I can still make the things around you disappear_.]

"Did… did you make light into nothing?" Yuriko squeaked out. She couldn't move, she couldn't even turn her head. It was just so absurd. It was like they were children in a fistfight and one of the children had just revealed that he had a gun. The difference in power was overwhelming. Yuriko was absolutely paralyzed with fear.

"Why isn't my hand negating it?" Kamijou asked. He was laughing nervously, likely as overwhelmed as Yuriko was. "I should be able to erase any thing supernatural my hand touches so why…?"

[Of course that's because you aren't touching the light Kamijou-kun. You can negate anything supernatural you touch, so obviously if there is nothing left to touch your power will become worthless.]

"This… this is insane!" Yuriko yelled. The aura of Kumagawa had finally overwhelmed her. "You'll die! Everybody will die! Every plant, every tree, _everything_ will die!"

[That's fine Accelerator. Now the whole world is finally like me. Unable to grow. Unable to live in the light. Unable to be happy.]

Yuriko attacked him more out of desperation than anything else. She didn't suddenly gain the courage to stand up to a monster who was far stronger than she. She didn't have a sudden inspiration that made her believe she could win. She just attacked because she felt it was the only thing left that she could do.

She kicked with her foot in the direction Kumagawa had spoken from. As she did so her foot collided with a tiny pebble. Her power accelerated that pebble to almost impossible speeds. It was faster and more powerful than the railgun that the number three could send out, and infinitely quicker to use. Of course it hit Kumagawa, and of course he wasn't able to block it.

Yuriko listened as Kumagawa died. She didn't want to kill him, she didn't want to kill anybody anymore. She was even aware that he would come back to life in a second. Her mind had just grasped onto the thought that if he brought himself back to life maybe he would have to bring the light back as well. She was like a cornered animal, unable to think clearly, merely grasping at straws.

[That was painful, Accelerator.]

The sound of his voice was one of the most devastating things she had ever heard. She fell to her knees. She had lost all will to fight. She had lost.

"Turned light into nothing?" Kamijou's voice cut through Yuriko's despair like light through the darkness. "As if I would ever allow that to happen!"

Yuriko couldn't see it of course but she knew what happened. Kamijou ran towards Kumagawa and punched him in the face just like he had to so many others. Regardless of the fact that he couldn't see, regardless of the fact that Kumagawa was capable of so much, still Kamijou ran towards him.

There was a sound of shattering glass and suddenly Yuriko could see again. Light had returned to the world as though it had never been gone.

"Are you insane?!" Kamijou demanded. He relentlessly punched Kumagawa again and again. "How many people do you think you just killed?! How many people just died in accidents?!"

[Don't be silly Kamijou-kun.] Kumagawa effortlessly denied. [If I can make light into nothing than surely I can make a little thing like 'accidents' into nothing. Oh but since you punched me that's no longer in place so I suppose that people might be dying again now.]

"You… you can erase light from existence, you can even erase things like accidents from existence, but you still call yourself weak?" Kamijou asked in bewilderment.

[I don't expect someone like you to understand!] Kumagawa shouted. Screws appeared in his hands and moved towards Kamijou far too fast for him to dodge. However this time Yuriko was ready and the screws were knocked out of his hand by the wind before he could stab Kamijou.

Yuriko stood up. Just because she had given into despair earlier did not mean that she couldn't get back up now.

Yuriko's formed her four black tornadoes onto her back again and flew at Kumagawa. He dodged with impossibly fast speed but that didn't matter. She still had control of the wind and she grabbed him with it. She chucked him up into the air, twice as high as the tallest building in Academy City, and caught up to him to deliver a punch that easily shattered his bones.

Then she started to really attack him. Yuriko was the #1 esper in Academy City. Even if she couldn't do something as ridiculous as turning light into nothing that didn't mean she wasn't still powerful. She used every trick she had ever even half thought of on Kumagawa, regardless of how impractical, hoping that eventually _something_ would stick. There was a reason that her control of vectors was so feared, and that was that it effectively allowed her to control almost _everything_.

Wind ripped his flesh from his bones, her hands tore off limbs with ease, she reversed the flow of his blood, suffocated him, drained all moisture from him, broke every bone in his body, and more. Yuriko used everything she had ever even conceived of, every dark thought, every idle musing, and every carefully practiced move. She delivered such horrors onto him that any onlooker would have thought she was some sort of professional torturer.

And through it all Kumagawa just glared at her. [If I hadn't made my sense of pain into nothing I would have gone delirious from it by now.] He informed her.

Yuriko felt despair as she realized what that meant, that all of her efforts had been for nothing. However this time she did not kneel to that thought, she just wracked her brain for some way to get around it. She had fought someone stronger than him once. That inhuman thing known as Aiwass had once appeared before her, and although it had not done something like removing light from the world she still knew that it was more powerful than Kumagawa was. If she could stand up to Aiwass she could stand up to Kumagawa.

[I wonder what would happen if I turned the wind into nothing?] Kumagawa asked.

Just like that he and Yuriko fell. She lost her wings, which were created by controlling the wind, and plummeted to the earth. For a brief moment she thought she would die, but she managed to survive by slowing down the vector of her fall so that she descended slowly enough that she wouldn't be hurt. Kumagawa on the other hand took no such precaution and hit the ground like a stone.

Kamijou caught Yuriko in his arms like a princess before she could hit the ground. He was blushing at her and she realized he had likely just seen the very lacy red panties she was wearing. She answered his blush with one of his own. Even so she lingered in his arms for a few seconds before hopping out so that she could stare down Kumagawa.

[So you two can even get into a romantic comedy moment at a time like this huh?] Kumagawa said. As expected he was completely unharmed. He didn't say it with a smile like he would have before. He had not stopped scowling at them since the fight had begun.

"So you can even turn something as abstract as the wind into nothing huh? How the hell is someone like you 'weak'?" She shot back.

[There is no limit to my power. I am someone who has to be careful not to erase this world itself.]

He had made the claim that he could erase the world before but this was the first time that Yuriko believed it.

"Those other people… who attacked me and Yuriko. Are they like you?"

[Yes. We are minuses. People who can only make the world worse. No matter what we do we will only end up making whatever situation we end up in worse. If we tried to save someone we would only end up causing more deaths, if we tried to protect ourselves we would only end up getting ourselves hurt, and if we tried to live a happy life we would only make everyone miserable.]

"…I don't get that." Kamijou said honestly. "I don't get how someone as strong as you thinks he can't help anyone."

"Of course you don't!" A voice yelled from behind Kumagawa. It was a woman, with long black hair and bandages on her arms. Yuriko didn't recognize her but Kamijou obviously did from his startled reaction. "How can people like you who are capable of overcoming your problems hope to understand people like us who can only fail?!"

"People like you have no idea what kind of suffering we have to go through!" Another voice yelled out. This person also appeared from behind Kumagawa, and this one Yuriko recognized. He was the one whose power was capable of hitting her. She would have been alarmed but he was still so obviously shaken up she highly doubted he would be of any use in a fight. "Have you ever seen the look of derision a girl you have failed to save gives you?! Have you ever tried with all your might to succeed and only been able to hurt yourself?!"

"Have you ever had to try to explain away your bruises from your parent's beatings?!" The woman cut in.

"Have you ever had to lick the heel of a perverted teacher?!"

"Have you ever had to have everyone you love as an enemy?!"

"…No." Kamijou answered sadly. "I have never had to face those things however… it's not like those things have to make you into something like a 'minus'! If a girl can't be thankful for your best effort than that is her fault! If you can't succeed at one thing no matter what then just do another! If your parents bruised you then blame them! If you have a perverted teacher then they are the one in the wrong! If everyone you love makes you their enemy then you are still innocent. Things that other people do to you are not something that can ever make you worthless! Even if you fail at things you still have worth as a person! So don't call yourselves something as derogatory as a minus!" He yelled with all his might. He poured his heart and soul into the speech as if he was trying to save them just by using it.

"As if that kind of idealistic speech would work on a minus." The man said. With that he and the girl collapsed onto the ground. Yuriko didn't know what was wrong with the girl but the man was obviously still shaken up.

[…So minuses like us can't even give a dramatic speech to help our comrade properly huh?] Kumagawa mused to himself as he looked at his fallen allies.

"Kumagawa… tell me why you're fighting us." Kamijou demanded. "Stop jumping around the question and trying to sound cool! Just tell me your honest reason!"

For a long time there was silence.

"I want to beat you!" Kumagawa erupted. Yuriko and Touma jumped back at the way he spoke. He sounded like a normal, angry, human. It was probably the most genuine thing he had said in a long time. "I want to beat you! Even though I'm not cool, or strong, or just. I want to beat people like you who can only be described as cool, strong, and just! Even though I'm not smart, even though I have no natural talent, even though I am always hated, I want to beat people like you who are smart, talented, and liked! I want to beat people who can win even when I can't! Even if I'm hated, even if I'm despised, even if I'm useless, I want to prove that I'm better than you heroes!"

A screw appeared in Kumagawa's hand. Impossibly it stretched until it was twice as long and half as wide as his normal ones.

He stabbed it into Yuriko.

Even though Yuriko's power could deflect his, even though Yuriko's barrier was absolute, even though Yuriko couldn't even be harmed by a nuke, Kumagawa still managed to stab her.

Yuriko instantly lost all hope. Everything seemed so... pointless. So meaningless. She knew with absolute certainty that no matter what she tried it would fail. She couldn't reason out why this was happening to her. Her dizzying intellect that had earned her the spot as Academy City's number one was gone. Her absolute power that could control anything she touched was gone.

"What the hell did you do to her?" Kamijou demanded. He ran towards her but this time Yuriko wasn't able to protect him when Kumagawa moved faster than humanly possible and stabbed him in the chest with a giant screw. It went all the way through Kamijou this time, and Kamijou wasn't stupid enough to negate it and be stuck with a giant hole in his body.

"Book maker." Kumagawa told them. His horrible aura had tripled in strength since he had started speaking normally "It's one of my skills. It makes people just like me. As stupid as me, as weak as me, and as worthless of me."

Even though Yuriko was not as smart as she was normally she was still able to pick up on what that meant. "Multi-skill?" She asked. "That's supposed to be impossible." She was staring at Kumagawa as she spoke. She felt like she still didn't understand something about him, something that would make this whole situation click into place once she learned it.

"I merely made that restriction into 'nothing'" With that simple sentence Kumagawa threw away one of the very foundations that Academy City's society stood upon.

"How can you do something like that and still call yourself weak?" Kamijou asked in blatant disbelief. He tried to rise from his knees but the screw imbedded in him obviously hurt too much to allow him to.

"It is impossible to grow stronger by taking something away. Even by removing that restriction I have only gained the ability to make other people as weak as I am."

"I don't understand." Kamijou said. "But if you think that I'm going to let you hurt Yuriko because of something like that then I'll break that illusion!"

Impossibly Kamijou stood up. Even though he had a screw sticking through him, even though he was covered in bruises, even though he was still limping from his toe, he still stood up. He punched Kumagawa with all his might and the wind returned, but Kumagawa didn't even look shaken.

Yuriko laughed. It was not a laugh filled with malice, or mockery, or desperation. It was pure and beautiful like a young child.

Kamijou and Kumagawa looked at her like she was crazy but Yuriko was beyond caring. She finally, finally understood. Wings as pure as snow appeared on her back and a halo of the same colour appeared on her head. This was the angel like transformation that Yuriko had only undergone once before, near the end of the hell that had been World War Three. The screw in her body broke apart and vanished without leaving a mark.

"The fact that you can still pull a dramatic turnaround at this point is one of the things I hate about you." Kumagawa told her.

"Kumagawa." Yuriko said. There was no malice or content in her voice, only compassion. "You think that because your power only takes away from the world you are weak."

"Of course it does."

Even if Kumagawa made his injuries into nothing, even if he made himself faster by making his 'limit' into nothing, even if he even erased the absolute barrier of only having one skill that all espers had to face he still would only be left with the impression of having lost something. Regardless of what spectacular things he did the thought that he had 'lost' something would still overwhelm him. This was what truly prevented Kumagawa from leaving the life of a minus behind. Every time he fought someone, every time he protected someone, and every time he used his power, Kumagawa would only get weaker. That was what he meant when he said he was unable to grow.

"However this love that I have is not something that can be made into nothing." Yuriko assured him.

"Love?" Kamijou asked stupidly.

No longer feeling nervous Yuriko calmly walked over to Kamijou and kissed him. It was long and sweet despite his obvious surprise. When she pulled back he just looked at her in shock. "I love you Touma." She told him. She finally fully understood her own feelings enough to say without a doubt that she did love him. In a way she had been in love with him since they had first met when he had stopped her from killing anymore Sisters.

She gave Touma's lips one quick more peck, and turned to face Kumagawa for the last time. "I'll teach you Kumagawa. I'll teach you how to be strong."

Yuriko swung her pure white wings at Kumagawa and they hit him. Had she been using her full strength that she had used to stop whatever had descended from that fortress in the sky back in Russia he would have died. However Yuriko was in complete control of her power and all that happened to Kumagawa was him getting hurt. Not injured, but hurt.

Kumagawa fought with Yuriko and for once in his life his power was of no use. He couldn't make her wings into nothing, he couldn't escape by making his speed limit into nothing, and he couldn't stop her by erasing light, wind, or sound. Even if he erased the world itself Yuriko would still be able to fight him.

Yuriko attacked Kumagawa with a shove of her wings, and Kumagawa learned how to set his feet.

Yuriko hit Kumagawa with an attack that hurt him without leaving injuries to erase, and Kumagawa learned how deal with pain.

Yuriko attacked Kumagawa in a pattern, and Kumagawa learned how to think quickly and reasonably in battle.

Yuriko gave Kumagawa an opening, and Kumagawa learned how to attack.

For the first time Kumagawa who had easily made all his stepping stones into nothing was forced to climb them. For the first time in his life Kumagawa grew.

"Take this strength I have given you and use it to grow even more! Use it to grow the other minuses as well! Only someone like you can understand them enough to teach them!" Yuriko yelled as she made one final swing of her wings.

"I will." Was all the reply she got.

Yuriko swung her wings and Kumagawa learned how to grow stronger from a loss.

* * *

**Author's Note:** So that's the final chapter. No I'm not ending it like that, with the Touma/Yuriko situation not completely resolved. There will be an epilogue.

There will also be (*insert drum roll here*) a sequel. However this will not be for a while. I plan on writing a bunch of one-shots between now and then so it will be a while. Also the next story will not be a To Aru/Medaka Box crossover but a To Aru/Hidan no Aria crossover. I'm sorry Medaka Box fans but my plan is to write a trilogy of To Aru crossovers each of which focus on a specific part of Yuriko and Touma's relationship. This one focused on it starting, the second will focus on the first stages (the can't keep their hands off each other stage included) as well as Yuriko having to come to terms with the reality of Touma's life (explaining he knows about and is involved with a secret society of magic will be hard to explain as will the disappears randomly with no warning, and being very close to several attractive women things), and the third will focus on the serious long term relationship stage.

Kumagawa's reasoning was a little different from the original manga but I wanted to avoid a copy-paste of that so I changed it up a little. I don't think that the whole "feels like he is losing something" thing is too much of a stretch though and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

The only impression I got from Accelerator's angel-stage personality was "kind and honest" so that's what I used here.


	8. Epilogue

**Author's Note: **So here's the epilogue. Not a very long chapter but it's all that was needed. Anything else added would just be padding.

* * *

It was the middle of the day when Yuriko woke up in a hospital. She didn't remember how or why she had come there. The last thing she could remember was fighting Kumagawa with those white wings and kissing-

"What the hell did I do?!" Yuriko screamed. She had kissed Touma. Without any sort of nervousness or hesitation she had walked over to Touma and kissed him.

"Calm down." Yomikawa told her. She, Yomikawa, Last Order, and even WORST were gathered around her bed. Yomikawa must have misunderstood the reason for her yell because she said "That spiky haired boy brought you here. Your battery had run out."

That made sense. She had used her battery a lot yesterday, and it must have run out while she had been using her wings. Then when her wings had vanished she must have fainted from the combination of her exhaustion, injuries, and loss of brain function.

"…What are you all doing here?" She asked.

"Huh?" Yomikawa asked in confusion. "Why wouldn't we come to see you in the hospital?"

Yuriko would never admit it but that simple remark made her feel very happy.

"So what exactly happened?" WORST asked. "Misaka was knocked out by that Kumagawa guy and then woke up in a hospital bed later."

"…Shouldn't you be in a hospital bed too?" Yuriko questioned.

"Oh are you worried about Misaka?" WORST said with a grin. "Misaka doesn't know what exactly happened but the doctors said that they had no idea why she was unconscious as she seemed perfectly fine physically. Then she woke up like she had just been asleep."

"Kumagawa must have made your 'consciousness' into nothing." Yuriko explained. Then she told them in a few short sentences that she and Touma had beaten up Kumagawa and his allies and that he wouldn't be attacking again. She very carefully avoided the subject of the kiss.

"Well Misaka doesn't really care anyways." WORST responded. "By the way that hero is in room 322 if you wanted to visit him. It's a private room so you two can do whatever you feel like without anybody seeing."

Yuriko glared at WORST as she left but didn't say anything.

That left the two adults in the room with her and Last Order. As always Last Order had a lot to say and it was a blessing when Yomikawa and Yoshikawa took her away to leave Yuriko some time to rest. So now she was alone.

Of course Yuriko was not calmly resting like she should have been. Instead her mind was going over the kiss again and again. It hadn't been the perfect romantic first kiss that you saw in romantic movies but it had still been pretty good. Not that she had any experience to compare it too but she knew that she had enjoyed it. Enough to make her keep thinking about it no matter how hard she tried to stop.

Not only that but she was also torturing herself wondering what _he_ had thought of it. Had he enjoyed it? Did he think it had come out of nowhere? Would he try to avoid her from awkwardness from now on?

Eventually Yuriko wasn't able to take it anymore and stood up. She grabbed her cane, which somebody had found and placed by her bed, and went off to find Touma.

She found him exactly where WORST had said he would be, which was surprising considering WORST's tendency towards pranks. The door was closed when she got there so, after taking a close look around to make sure WORST wasn't spying on her, she steeled herself and pushed open the door.

"Ah, Yuriko." Touma said. She hadn't noticed it earlier but at some point he had started calling her by her name instead of Suzushina-san. He blushed as she walked towards him and she thought he must have been agonizing over the kiss just like she was. She sat down in the seat beside his bed without saying a word.

For a long time neither of them said a word. The silence stretched on and on until it was almost unbearable.

Finally Touma tried to break the silence. "So, um, about the k-"

"I like you!" Yuriko blurted out. Then she immediately wished she could bury herself in the ground. She hadn't meant to say _that_. Now he would denounce her as a murderer, and tell her that he was disgusted that someone like her would like him. She knew the rejection was coming like she knew that the sun would set today. It was inevitable.

"I… like you too Yuriko."

With those 5 words Yuriko's world shattered. Her despair vanished and all she could think about was how happy she was. She hadn't realized how desperately she had wanted to hear him say those words until just now.

In her euphoria she kissed him again. It had seemed to work out well last time after all. Only this time she used tongue.

"Th-that was…" Touma said when it was over. He looked as happy as she thought she must look. With a wide grin he initiated the next kiss and for a brief moment Yuriko was in heaven.

"So... will you go out with me?" She asked him. She knew what his answer would be but part of her _needed_ the confirmation.

"Of course… although hopefully the next date will be much less chaotic right?"

Yuriko smiled and nodded.

Then she kissed him yet again. Just because she could.

* * *

**Author's Note Continued: **And that's the end of the story. I really hope that all of you enjoyed it. Please leave a review as they are like crack to me (any author who says they aren't is lying btw)

For those of you that didn't read the previous author's note this will have a sequel. To quote myself: "However this will not be for a while. I plan on writing a bunch of one-shots between now and then so it will be a while. Also the next story will not be a To Aru/Medaka Box crossover but a To Aru/Hidan no Aria crossover. I'm sorry Medaka Box fans but my plan is to write a trilogy of To Aru crossovers each of which focus on a specific part of Yuriko and Touma's relationship. This one focused on it starting, the second will focus on the first stages (the can't keep their hands off each other stage included) as well as Yuriko having to come to terms with the reality of Touma's life (explaining he knows about and is involved with a secret society of magic will be hard to explain as will the disappears randomly with no warning, and being very close to several attractive women things), and the third will focus on the serious long term relationship stage."


End file.
